What Time Is It
by Bill K
Summary: The Senshi face a foe traveling into the past from his future, changing history by eliminating those who oppose his master, including the Senshi.
1. Calm Before The Storm

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 1: "Calm Before The Storm"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Sailor Moon and all related characters are (c)2018 by Naoko Takeuchi and are used without permission, but with respect. Story is (c)2018 by Bill K.

* * *

Luna sat in the window of the Royal Chambers and looked out over Crystal Tokyo. The city seemed calm, peaceful, and yet alive with the industry of people living their lives and striving to get ahead. It had been two years since the tumult of The Moon King, the chaos sewn by the fox demon Hojiko and her Goremu, and the sensational resignation of Liberal Democrat Party head Takahashi. Life had settled into a peaceful normalcy. It was as if the gods had decided that the city had seen enough turmoil for a while.

For that, the little black cat was grateful. Without such distractions, repairs to Japan in the wake of the Tohoku earthquake and the two year ice age that followed had finished. Japan had even opened a new economic market, exporting building materials and workers to other countries in the Pacific Rim unable to cope with the devastation at the same pace. Several countries had accepted readily, especially at the generous terms negotiated by the Japanese government, at the behest of the King and Queen. Other countries, such as Russia and China, preferred to do their own rebuilding, but thanked Japan for the offer.

Even with this, the Japanese construction industry was thriving and it was a big help to the still recovering economy. The people were happy. That in turn made Serenity happy, which in turn made the people even happier.

The sun shone brightly on that day in late June of 2018. Luna felt the warm rays on her fur and found herself purring unconsciously.

"Is something happening outside?" she heard Serenity ask. The cat turned and saw the Queen glide into the room, the hem of her long white gown seeming to not quite touch the floor.

"No," Luna responded. "Just enjoying the sun.

"You're not . . ." Serenity began, then stopped.

"Not what?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe on-line, shopping perhaps?"

The cat sighed. "Your Majesty, I am well aware that your birthday is in one week," Luna grumbled. "There is no need for such blatant hinting."

"I wasn't hinting!" fumed The Queen. "And DON'T call me Your Majesty!"

"A blow to the head is more subtle than you are at this time of the year," Luna volleyed back. "And you assume I haven't already purchased your gift."

"What did you get me?" Serenity grinned greedily.

"You may have nothing better to do than act like a two-year-old child, but I do," Luna scowled. She leaped down from the windowsill and scampered for the door, her tail straight in the air. "And I'll remind you that you have a luncheon with the heads of the Japanese Education Association at twelve. Do be punctual."

"Luna, don't go away mad!" Serenity whined. But the black cat disappeared out the door. In frustration, she blew at her bangs. Then the door opened again.

"Your Majesty," Luna added, then closed the door again.

"LUNA!" Serenity bellowed.

Out in the hall, the black cat tried to keep from smiling, but couldn't. Queen Serenity may have many aggravating quirks, but she also had a heart of gold and Luna felt blessed to be associated with her.

And she was so much fun to tease, too. It might be an affront to the Queen's station, but Luna just couldn't resist. She noticed Artemis approaching and forced herself to be serious.

"Luna, have you seen Minako?" the white cat asked.

"Not for several days, now that you mention it," Luna replied. "Isn't she filming? What was the name of it; 'Princess Of Space' or some such tomfoolery?"

"Yeah, but filming on that wrapped up yesterday," Artemis replied. "She should be in bed, either sleeping in or sleeping one off. I'm a little concerned."

"Given Minako's occasional lack of propriety, perhaps you've good reason," Luna mused. "And of course, the Senshi sadly do have enemies. Perhaps it would be prudent to use the Senshi Communicator to locate her whereabouts."

"I don't like doing that," Artemis grimaced. "If Minako is just out doing some post-production partying, she gets mad when she thinks I'm checking up on her. After all, she is thirty-eight years old."

"And if some ne'er-do-well has captured her, you could be rescuing her just in time," Luna countered. "Better safe than sorry. If you fear her that much, tell her I ordered you to check."

"I'm not afraid of her!" huffed the white cat. He turned and headed for the ready room that the cats used to monitor the city and the world.

"No, of course you're not," Luna smiled and then followed.

* * *

"Mom, I'm going out!" Akiko called out as she paused by the front door. Makoto popped her head out of the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Makoto asked. Clearly these plans were news to her.

"Grace and Sakura and I are going to hang out," Akiko sighed, the thirteen year old girl annoyed that she had to explain herself.

"That's kind of sudden," Makoto commented with a raised eyebrow as she entered from the kitchen.

"We had some free time," Akiko shrugged.

"And just where were you going to 'hang out'?"

"I don't know. Wherever," Akiko responded. She darkened. "Why, did you want to put a tracer on me?"

"Homework done?"

"Yes, Mom," Akiko sighed dramatically.

"Well I suppose it's OK, as long as you're back by dinner," Makoto reasoned. She looked her daughter over. "You're going out like that?"

"What's wrong with this?" Akiko demanded. She was wearing jeans, a short-sleeve softball shirt and a backwards baseball cap of the local Yomiyuri Giants.

"It's not what a lady would wear," bristled Makoto.

"Well maybe I don't want to be a lady," Akiko grumbled, rolling her eyes. "Maybe I want to be me."

"Looking like you just came off of the softball field isn't a way to make a good first impression," fussed her mother, "particularly with guys."

"Not why we're going," countered Akiko. "Now can I go or was there something else you wanted to criticize me about?"

"A smart mouth isn't going to make a good first impression with people, either," Makoto glared. Then she sagged in defeat. "Have fun, be careful, and be home by dinner."

The husky girl lunged out the door before her mother could say anything else. Makoto exhaled loudly in frustration.

"What is it with that girl anymore?" Makoto muttered to herself. "She never minded very well, but anymore I can't even open my mouth without her taking it personally." She chuckled ruefully. "And she's getting too big to spank. I wish kids came with an owner's manual."

* * *

The Queen glided up to the door leading to Setsuko's room and knocked. She had the luncheon pressing her at twelve, and she knew Luna would have her head if she was late. But she wanted to look in on Setsuko before then, and one of the advantages of her new abilities was that she could materialize a fresh look with a thought.

"Besides, when have I ever missed lunch?" she mumbled to herself with a smile.

The seven-year-old bid her to come in. Serenity slid the door open and peeked inside, expecting the girl to be working on her spelling booklets, her kanji practice or some other assignment for second grade, or playing one of the video games that she was hopelessly addicted to. But she found the little black-haired child in front of her computer with a web page up.

"Is that one of those ancestry search pages?" Serenity asked, entering the child's room.

"Yes, Mama," Setsuko responded. "I'm trying to look up my original family." She peeked over her shoulder. "That's OK, isn't it?"

"Of course!" Serenity exclaimed. "I don't want you to forget about your original family. I'm just surprised. You never seemed interested before."

"Well, I was always interested," Setsuko admitted. "I just . . . well . . ."

Serenity knelt down next to the girl. "Were you afraid Endymion or I would be insulted if you brought them up?"

"Uh huh. I'm very happy with you as my mama, and with Mamoru-Papa. I don't want anything to change. I like it here." She grew solemn and glanced back at the computer. "I just don't remember that much about my real mother and father, or about my older brother. I remember they died - - though I don't even remember that very well."

"You know I dimmed those memories for you so you could stop being afraid," Serenity said, brushing at the girl's shoulder-length hair. "Are you sorry I did it?"

"No," Setsuko murmured. "I just don't remember a lot about them. I just think I should remember more about them."

"You were pretty young," Serenity suggested. "I remember a lot about my parents, but not a lot from when I was that age. I think that kind of comes with the territory. And your Mamoru-Papa doesn't remember much from that age, either." She leaned in and rubbed her cheek against Setsuko's. "But if you want to keep looking into who your first parents were, that's perfectly fine. Maybe you can even find a picture."

"Yeah!" Setsuko said, encouraged.

"And even if you can't, what you do find can help you understand who you are." She glanced at her Senshi Communicator. "Oh, I'm going to be late! You keep looking, if you want to. Just remember, don't click on any strange sites without asking your father or Luna first. You remember what happened when I clicked on that one site and infected the entire palace's computer system, don't you?"

"Yeah," Setsuko chuckled. "Luna was SO mad!"

"Well, Luna likes being mad," Serenity grumbled. "Anyway, I have to go. You going to be all right?"

"Yes, Mama," Setsuko said pleasantly.

Serenity kissed her on the cheek and then glided off, her gown changing as she went. Setsuko watched her go. For a moment, she felt guilty about what she was doing, for she didn't want to hurt Serenity for anything in the world. But curiosity got the better of her and she returned to her exploration.

* * *

In a retail section of Tokyo that had just been rebuilt and was slowly getting back to the pre-Ice Disaster norm, business was picking up. People were finding their way back to old shops and restaurants they had favored before the disaster. They were also discovering new shops and new restaurants that had sprung up in the spaces of old establishments who hadn't returned. Foot traffic wasn't up to pre-disaster levels, but signs were encouraging.

Amid the crowd of people hustling back and forth, a man was suddenly there. Nobody was really certain if he'd just appeared or if he'd just been unnoticed until now. He was a tall man, thin and unhealthy looking. His head was bald, his eyes were sunken, and a long, thin, beak-like nose divided sallow cheeks. On his thin, gaunt, brittle frame was a skin-tight suit of metallic silver that covered him completely from head to toe, and was dotted in a specific pattern along his limbs and body by red circles. His eyes were covered by a red visor.

Heads turned and people stared. He was a sight because of his strange costume. Some thought he was an actor in some zentai drama, while others thought it an advertising stunt. Others stared because he was not Japanese. He seemed vaguely European, although he could be American, as there wasn't one identifiable type of American. Such types, though, were not common in Japan, at least not wearing the uniform he was wearing.

The stranger ignored everyone. He held out one arm in front of him, while the hand on the other pressed one of the red circles on his clothing, this one chest high.

"Dead Scream!" came the call from above. The crowd looked up even as a sonic blast struck the stranger dead on, slamming him to the pavement. Leaping down almost from nowhere was a Sailor Senshi carrying a long staff adorned with a large red ruby, her green-black hair cascading behind her as she descended. Though she wasn't familiar to the crowd, the basic design of the uniform told everyone she was one of Queen Serenity's Senshi.

Still, it didn't keep the crowd from falling back to give the combatants plenty of room to battle.

"You shall not have the opportunity to carry out your misguided plans," Sailor Pluto proclaimed. She landed nimbly about fifteen feet from the fallen stranger. Her staff was pointed and ready to fire again, while her lanky body was crouched and ready for any counter move.

"You won't stop it," the fallen stranger told her as he struggled to rise.

"Did you think I would not know you would appear in this place at this moment?" Pluto demanded.

He smiled. "And did you think I wouldn't know that you knew?" he asked.

From behind, a second stranger materialized out of thin air, looking exactly like the stranger on the pavement. Pluto whirled to face him, but too late. She was struck squarely by a concentrated energy discharge from the palms of the second stranger. Crumpling under the assault, Pluto sank to the pavement and fell unconscious. As the second stranger faded from view, the first scrambled over to the fallen Pluto. He grasped her with one hand and touched a circle on his wrist with the other.

The pair faded from view, to the astonishment of the on-looking crowd.

Continued in Chapter 2


	2. What, Again?

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 2: "What, Again?"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

"I've got a fix on her Senshi Communicator," Artemis announced.

Luna glanced over at her partner, for the tone in his voice had been just a hair too strident. Artemis was more worried than he was letting on. For a moment, the black cat felt a pang of jealousy, for she had always had an irrational thought that the relationship between Artemis and Minako was more than just mentor and student. In the past she had always dismissed the thought for what it was, that being insecurity on her part as to her allure. She did so again. Artemis and Minako were, for lack of a better term, war buddies; almost siblings. It was like the familial relationship she had with Usagi when Usagi was Sailor Moon. There was nothing romantic between them.

"Bringing in the map now," Luna reported. Her paws glided over the keys of the computer board. "1-1, Uchisaiwai-Cho 1-Chome," and she stopped. "That's the Imperial Hotel in Chiyoda-Ku!" the cat sputtered.

"What's she doing there?" Artemis puzzled.

"Filming on location, perhaps?"

"She told me filming was done." Artemis thought a moment, then turned to the central communication board for the Senshi Communicators. "Maybe I better call her."

"An excellent idea," Luna interrupted, "but please keep the Senshi Communicator for Senshi business. The telephone will work just as well."

If one could see Artemis blush under his white fur, Luna thought she could. She turned her head to hide her smile as he dialed the hotel.

"What room is she in? They're not going to tell me that over the phone," Artemis said to her. Luna passed on the information and he asked the hotel operator to connect him. Seven rings later, he heard it pick up.

"Yeah?" came a voice frowsy with sleep, but Artemis could recognize it as Minako.

"Mina?" Artemis exclaimed. "Where have you been?"

"Cat, you're not my dad, OK, so don't take that tone," grumbled Minako.

"Excuse me. We've been worried," fussed Artemis. "I, uh, Luna thought you might have run into some old enemy - - or some new one."

"You saying I can't handle myself? Who was Sailor V here?"

"Why are you in a hotel?" Artemis demanded.

"And why the most expensive one in town, too?" Luna added dryly.

"I see your girlfriend is with you," muttered Minako. "I'm in a hotel because it's traditional. And I'm in the most expensive hotel because we can both afford it, so why not go in style?"

"Sure, spend your money as fast as you make," Artemis began, then stopped. "We?"

"Oh," Minako giggled devilishly. "Didn't I mention Tatsuo?"

"Of all the irresponsible," Luna began.

"Hey, I've got my Senshi Communicator! So tell your girlfriend to back off!" Minako growled.

"Mina!" Artemis huffed.

Just then a light began flashing on the control panel in front of Luna. She pressed the button below it and a police dispatch flashed on the screen. Quickly reading it, the black cat sobered.

"Artemis, we've a situation!" Luna told him.

"What's up?" Artemis heard Minako say over the phone.

"Police are reporting a pitched battle in the shopping district between a stranger covered in a spotted body suit and a Sailor Senshi."

"Which one?" Artemis asked.

"Report isn't clear. I'm dispatching the other Senshi now."

"Mina?" Artemis said into the phone.

"On my way. Text me the location," Minako sighed dramatically. "Oh, life, why do you hate me?"

* * *

A Toyota mid-size pulled out of the gate surrounding the Crystal Palace and headed for the Minato-Ku shopping and entertainment district. Though it was Ami's car, Sailor Jupiter was at the wheel, with Sailor Mars sitting beside her. Sailor Mercury was in the back, her Senshi computer out and her fingers typing furiously.

"I'm hooking into surveillance cameras in the area," Mercury told them. "If I can get one that got the confrontation recorded, we can have a better idea of what we're going up against."

"And who was involved," Mars added. "It has to be one of the Outers. Luna said Venus was going to meet us there."

Mars glanced at Jupiter. She could sense the anxiety of the woman. Fortunately Artemis had altered the traffic signals to give them a clear path. At the speed Jupiter was driving, it was a precaution that might just prevent an accident.

"She's OK," Mars assured her. Jupiter glanced curiously at Mars, her anxiety not assuaged. "Akiko's OK," she reiterated.

"Akiko?" Mercury asked, looking up from her computer. "How is Akiko involved?"

"Maybe she's not," Jupiter replied unconvincingly. "She went out with a couple of her friends. They were going to hang out in the retail district." Jupiter gripped the steering wheel tighter. "I wanted to call her, but one of us had to drive and Mars doesn't know how. Besides, she'd just get mad at me for being over-protective."

"I see," Mercury replied solemnly. She went back to work. Mars gave her an impatient glance, then returned to Jupiter.

"Do you want me to call?" Mars asked.

"Left my cell phone in my other identity," Jupiter quipped weakly. "She's probably fine, just like you said."

"I've got video!" Mercury announced. "Our adversary is male, covered completely in a silver body suit of some kind with red circles intermittently scattered over the suit. It seems to emit some sort of energy waves."

"What do they do?" Mars asked.

"Unknown at present," Mercury responded. "The Senshi involved is Sailor Pluto!"

"Pluto?" Mars exclaimed. "I guess that means that energy must affect temporal space. Otherwise Pluto wouldn't be involved."

"A logical deduction," Mercury concurred. "The battle moves out of the camera's range. I don't know what happened to them, but they were engaged in a pitched battle."

"Suppose that means Uranus and Neptune are going to be involved?" Mars asked.

"I'd say that's a big 'yes'," Jupiter interjected. When Mars looked at her, she glanced ahead.

Cordoned off by police incident tape and barricades, a section of the street in the retail district was being examined by a police forensic team while citizens crowded around the perimeter and watched. In the center of the investigation were Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, conferring with each other. They noticed that Neptune held the Deep Aqua Mirror in one hand. Jupiter stopped the car as close to the barricade as she could. A murmur of excitement went up when they got out and the crowd saw that more of the famed Sailor Senshi were there.

"Mercury," Neptune nodded with a warm smile as the three approached. She was cordial with the other two, while Uranus remained grim. "I see you've heard."

"Pluto engaged a strange man in a dotted silver suit, possibly a power suit," Mercury summed up. "I couldn't see the result of the battle."

"They both faded from view," Neptune replied, "according to the mirror. Dissolved like mist."

"More than likely time-shifted," Mercury scowled. She engaged her visor and began scanning the area.

As she did so, Jupiter had been looking over the crowd, hoping to see a familiar face alive and uninjured. Her hopes were rewarded. While the other Senshi worked the scene, Jupiter came over to the police line, where Akiko and her two friends were watching. When they caught sight of Jupiter, the three young girls each tensed.

"I glad to see you three are all right," Jupiter told them.

"What's up, Mom?" Akiko asked.

"We're still figuring that out," Jupiter replied. The Senshi then contemplated her next words. "This area could get dangerous again. Maybe you three should find a safer place to hang out."

For a moment, Akiko wanted to rebel. Jupiter could see it. But the respect and admiration her daughter had for Sailor Jupiter kept her in check. The girl's shoulders sagged a little, then she turned to her friends.

"Come on," she suggested. "We can hang out at my place."

"The Palace?" gasped one friend, a transplanted American of distant African descent with tightly curled black hair and a slim figure. Her other friend, a petite girl with short brown hair and glasses and just beginning to bloom, was equally amazed and thrilled.

"That OK?" Akiko asked Jupiter.

"Sure. Just don't spoil your dinner," Jupiter nodded, inwardly sighing with relief. The three girls headed off for the Crystal Palace, allowing Jupiter to rejoin the other Senshi.

"I'm picking up energy signatures consistent with the energy I've recorded when Pluto time-travels," Mercury told the others. "It was definitely a time-shift, and it was initiated by the man in the dotted suit."

"But Pluto's the only one who can do that!" Uranus exclaimed.

"Not true," Mercury shook her head. "Yui has - - had - - the capability to access the Door of Time. So had Chibi-Usa. It stands to reason that someone else solving that puzzle of temporal physics is entirely possible, perhaps even likely given human ingenuity."

"And Pluto knew this, so she was trying to stop him," Neptune surmised. "The question is: What does he want?"

"We find Pluto, we find out," Uranus said.

Mars heard her communicator signal and engaged it. On the small screen was King Endymion.

"What's going on, Mars?" Endymion asked. She could see Serenity behind him.

"Pluto engaged some stranger in a power suit and lost," Mars reported. "Mercury thinks she was carried off in a time-shift."

Just then a cab pulled up to the police line. Out of the cab popped Sailor Venus. To thunderous applause from the watching crowd, Venus ran up to the others, her blonde hair whipping behind her.

"OK, I'm here! Where are the bad guys?" Venus exclaimed.

"Battle's over, Blondie," Jupiter told her. "We're just piecing together what happened."

"YOU'RE KIDDING!" howled Venus. "I LEFT MY HONEYMOON FOR THIS?"

"HONEYMOON?" gasped Jupiter, Mars and Mercury in unison.

* * *

"Keep me informed," Endymion replied on the Senshi Communicator. He turned to compare thoughts with his wife. But Queen Serenity was no longer standing behind him.

"Your Majesty!" Luna shouted, racing after the Queen as she glided down a hall of the palace. "Where are you off to?"

"I'm going to the temporal nexus to check for Pluto," Serenity replied without stopping. She glided up a flight of stairs as if her feet didn't touch the steps. "And DON'T call me 'Your Majesty'!"

"Are you certain that's quite safe?" Luna argued. "If the Door of Time has been compromised by intruders, they may be laying in wait for you!"

"I have to know, Luna," Serenity replied. She'd stopped in front of a bare wall that only she and a few others knew was the dimensional warp into the temporal pocket that contained the Door of Time. "I have to know if Setsuna's all right."

"And if she's not there, what do you plan to do?" Luna asked pointedly.

Ignoring the question, Serenity turned and began to pass through the nexus. Acting quickly, Luna caught onto the hem of Serenity's gown with her front claws and hung on desperately, hoping she would pass through with Serenity. Immediately the scene changed. Gone was the brightly lit corridor of the palace. It was replaced with a dimly lit world, almost a world of perpetual dusk, with strange thick mists obscuring anything that might exist there. A feeling of unease came over the cat and her tail twitched nervously.

"I wish you hadn't come in with me," Serenity said.

"Someone has to be here to protect you in case my fears are justified," Luna responded.

Acquiescing, Serenity knelt down and scooped the black cat up, draping the cat over her shoulder as she had as a teen. Without a word, Serenity ventured into the mists. As they moved, Luna began to lose her sense of direction. There were no physical markers to gauge her location, just the endless dusk and the endless mists.

"Are you certain you're going in the right direction?" Luna asked.

"Of course," Serenity replied. "Don't you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"The Door of Time."

"Frankly, no," Luna said. "But then, you are more sensitive to these things than I am." She sniffed the air. "Oh, these mists are playing hob with my sense of smell!"

"Pluto?" Serenity called out. As she kept going, Luna could make out a white door clouded by the mists. "Pluto, are you here?"

Luna was about to speak, when a dark form rose out of the mists near them. The cat tensed for an attack until the form broke the cloak of the mists and became recognizable. It was Sailor Pluto.

"I am here, My Queen," Pluto said. Then she knelt before the Queen and bowed her head. "You honor me with your presence."

"Pluto, I was so worried about you!" Serenity gasped. "The other Senshi said you'd been carried off!"

"Indeed?" Pluto smiled as she rose to full height. The tall Senshi dwarfed the Queen and Luna suddenly felt uneasy again.

* * *

Pluto awoke in a blank room. She took a moment to reorient her senses. Her hands were tied behind her back with some sort of rigid cuff. As she shoved to a sitting position, Pluto surveyed the room. It was stark, antiseptic white, with no furnishings and no doors or windows. Her Garnet Orb Staff was gone.

Closing her eyes, Pluto cleared her mind and allowed images of the recent past to flood into her brain. As one who was privy to all that had been and all that was yet to be and all that could be, it was a simple matter to sort through the images and learn what had happened since her battle with Kelvion.

A door hissed open. Opening her eyes, Pluto saw Kelvion step through a doorway into the room. The panel hissed shut behind him, returning the room to all white. Kelvion was still wearing his temporal suit.

"You're awake," Kelvion said. "That's good. Madame Charress was growing impatient. You're . . ."

"You wish me to expand your knowledge of temporal physics," Pluto interrupted. "This is something I must not do. Your actions have already caused ripples in the time stream. To allow . . ."

"You will show me all I need to know!" the suited man barked. "Or I will kill you in the most painful manner I can think of!"

"To allow you to continue risks throwing the time stream into chaos and eliminating the future of Earth," Pluto continued, unfazed by his threats. "You must stop."

"So you would die rather than tell me what Madame Charress wants to know?"

"If necessary," Pluto responded.

Kelvion suddenly turned, as if listening to a voice only he heard. Moments later he moved toward Pluto. Grabbing her by one upper arm, he dragged her to her feet and forced her through the door. He said nothing as he pushed her down a corridor lit with harsh artificial light. The corridor was cold and metallic. There was a sense that it was underground. Finally they stopped at a door. Kelvion touched a finger to the door and it slid open, a mechanical whir coloring the motion. Pluto was pushed through the opening.

Pluto found herself in a room covered with monitors. Each monitor displayed a different scene from a different place, but they all had a unifying theme. They were pictures of humans persecuting or attacking other humans, or raging mobs angrily protesting. The scenes didn't surprise Pluto, for she had glimpsed them before. They were of Earth in the late twenty-first century, in a time line that no longer had Queen Serenity or the Sailor Senshi.

In the center of the room was a wide metallic pillar. With a pneumatic hiss, the pillar began to recede into the floor. As the pillar lowered, what was perched on top of it came into view. It was a chair with a high metallic back and wide metallic arms. On the arms were control buttons. Sitting on the chair was a woman. She was tall and slim, with thick black hair cascading down her back. Once she had been striking, but age and struggle were catching up to her, putting cracks in her mask of elegance. She wore a gown that tried to be regal, but seemed unnecessarily gaudy in almost a cheap manner.

But when she descended to just above Pluto and looked down on the Senshi, there was a contempt visible in her pale green eyes.

"This is her?" Madame Charress asked with a hint of disdain.

"Yes, Madame," Kelvion replied crisply.

"She's not much to look at," sneered Charress. "Kelvion tells me that you can upgrade his ability to travel through time. I need you to show him this."

"I must refuse," Pluto answered calmly.

"You don't understand," Charress said, her eyes flaring with anger. "I'm not giving you a choice here. I need Kelvion to be able to time travel to the best of his ability. And I want you to show him how to better do it. And if you want to keep on living, you'll do it."

"I understand completely," Pluto told her. "You are the one who does not understand. There are things that are more important than what you want."

A cold fury overtook Charress. She glared down at Pluto, scarcely able to comprehend that someone dared to defy her.

"Yes," Pluto said pre-emptively. "I know who you are."

That was the limit. "Kelvion, kill her," Charress hissed out.

Continued in Chapter 3


	3. The Ruler Of The World

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 3: "The Ruler Of The World"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

"Pluto, I'm so relieved that you're all right!" Serenity exclaimed.

Sailor Pluto took the relief and joy of her Queen in stride, as if she'd glimpsed it before. Though this didn't seem strange to Serenity, Luna was bothered by the unusual reaction. She began sniffing the air, trying to get the scent of this person claiming to be Pluto. But the mists of the temporal nexus were still interfering.

"Luna, what are you doing?" fussed the Queen.

"Perhaps she is not convinced of my identity, My Queen," Pluto observed. She extended her hand to the cat so it was close to her nose. "Is this better for you?"

Luna glanced suspiciously at the woman, then sniffed at the hand.

"Yes, I can establish that you're Sailor Pluto now," Luna replied.

"Well thank goodness you're satisfied!" huffed Serenity.

"Better safe than sorry!" Luna huffed back. "I apologize for my suspicions, but it is necessary to protect Her Majesty. And these mists interfere with my long range sense of smell."

"You need not apologize, Luna, for you work for her greater glory," Pluto replied graciously.

"That does bring up the question of who was in the retail district just now," Luna pondered. "And who this person was fighting."

"Yes, Pluto, Mercury and Neptune both said it was you!" Serenity added.

"And they were correct, My Queen," Pluto said. "So far as they could see."

"So you were carried off?" Serenity gasped. "Did you escape? Who is that man? What does he want?"

"All questions that I shall answer to the best of my ability, My Queen," Pluto assured her. "The man is Lester Kelvion. He will be born in 2054 in Surrey, England, and will become a researcher in temporal physics. Using concepts found on the internet that originated with Yui Bidou, he will develop the first working means of temporal displacement of living tissue."

Queen Serenity stared.

"He develops a means of time travel, Your Majesty," Luna sighed.

"Oh," Serenity said. "Oh!"

"He also will come under the sway of a charismatic leader who is destined to sow chaos and destruction throughout much of Europe," Pluto continued. "And through his temporal abilities, this leader will consolidate her hold on power by systematically altering past events in her favor."

"So it was your future self that this Kelvion person was fighting in the retail district?" Luna asked.

"Yes," Pluto nodded. "Kelvion's interference in the past came to my attention and I sought to oppose him and protect the time line."

"Pluto, he captured you!" Serenity exclaimed. "Your future you, I mean! We have to help her!"

"I shall assist my future self, My Queen," Pluto smiled. Then she grew serious. "But above all, you must not leave this time. To do so will risk your life and everything you hold dear."

"But . . ." Serenity began.

"Please, My Queen," Pluto reiterated. "You must leave this to me. If Kelvion should appear in this time again, you may act against him. But you must not leave this time. That is essential."

"OK," Serenity nodded. "But please hurry! I don't know what he might be doing to her! You!"

Pluto smiled, genuinely touched. "I go now, My Queen. You can find your own way out of the mists?"

"Yes, don't worry about me. Go!"

Pluto nodded, then turned her staff a quarter turn. She faded from view, leaving Serenity and Luna alone in the nexus.

"Come, Your Majesty, we should hurry back and inform the others," Luna said.

"Yes," Serenity mumbled. Luna sensed she was distracted by something. Glancing at the Queen, she found Serenity staring at the Door of Time.

"Your Majesty," Luna said sharply. "Sailor Pluto warned you to stay in this time period. Get that thought straight out of your head."

"You don't know what I was thinking," Serenity grumbled.

"Shall we wager?" Luna shot back. "Besides, you don't know how to properly operate that - - whatever it is! Knowing you, you're liable to end up in the tenth century as some warlord's concubine!" Serenity continued to stare. "Off with you now!"

"All right!" huffed the Queen. She turned and headed for what Luna hoped was the exit. "Concubine?"

"I was attempting to be delicate," Luna scowled.

* * *

"Kill her," Madame Charress snapped. Pluto saw the anger in her eyes, anger at being defied. Defiance was clearly something this woman couldn't abide.

Without hesitation, Kelvion pressed a circle on his suit. His right hand suddenly became ghostly and unsolid up to the elbow. Pluto knew what it meant. He had time-shifted his hand and forearm, making it only partially in this time period. If he plunged the ghost hand into a solid object, then brought it back to this time, the resulting atomic displacement would disrupt the molecular structure of whatever he solidified it in. Solid objects would blow apart. So would human flesh. If it was solidified in the brain or chest cavity, it would be lethal.

A grisly way to die.

"Dead Scream," was the only clue. A sonic blast struck Kelvion, knocking him away from the captive Pluto and sending him skidding across the floor to the far wall. Pluto knew what she would see, but looked anyway. Madame Charress looked, too, but was far more shocked. Standing there, brandishing the Garnet Orb Staff, was another Sailor Pluto.

"There are two of you?" Charress gasped.

Pluto's response was to turn the staff on Charress. But a moment later Charress was surrounded by ten Kelvions, ringing her in a protective circle. Six more suddenly appeared and lunged at the free Pluto. But she faded from view, leaving them grasping air. The free Pluto reappeared next to the captive one. The squad of six Kelvions faded from one spot and reappeared around the two Plutos. But they were a second too late, as the two Plutos faded from view. With their captive gone, the additional Kelvions faded from view, leaving only the original sitting against the far wall.

"You let her get away!" roared Madame Charress. She pulled a small metal device from one of the arms of her chair and flung it at Kelvion. It struck the wall above him and shattered. "Are you that incompetent? Do I have to do everything around here?"

"I'm sorry, Madame Charress," Kelvion offered. "She's still more skilled at temporal physics than I am! And it's like she knows what's going to happen in advance!"

"I don't want to hear excuses! I want her dead!" Charress snapped.

"I will, Madame Charress," Kelvion nodded. "Whatever you want. But she'll be hard to find. She only makes random . . ."

"More excuses!"

"Yes, I'll get it done," Kelvion nodded. "But - - in the mean time, perhaps I could focus on your other objective? Eliminating Queen Serenity and the Senshi?"

"I thought they were already dead," Charress glared.

"In our time, they're dead," Kelvion explained. "But I still must go into the past and eliminate them. And perhaps in doing so, I'll be able to draw out . . ."

"Whatever! I'm not interested in the details! Just do it!" Charress snapped. The pillar her chair rested on began to rise. "I've got to address my base now. They're probably dying to hear from me. And I want to hear their reassuring love for me. Go do what you have to do."

As the pillar continued to rise, Kelvion got to his feet.

"Yes, Madame Charress," he said reverently. Then he pressed one of the circles on his suit and faded from sight.

* * *

It was a struggle for Mercury to drive back to the palace. Traffic was a huge snarl around the battle site. She desperately wanted to get back and analyze the data her computer scans had taken. There was also the mystery of what was happening and what implications it had for the crown and the city, a mystery that tantalizingly tugged at her brain.

Then there was the din from the back seat of the car. Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter had Sailor Venus bracketed between them and were very loudly demanding an explanation for why she had been on a honeymoon at the Tokyo Imperial Hotel.

"Because I got married!" Venus gasped incredulously. "Why else do you go on a honeymoon? I understand Mars not understanding that, but didn't you and the man-mountain have one, Jupe?"

"Don't change the subject!" glared Jupiter.

"What do you mean I wouldn't understand?" roared Mars.

"Oh the concept, sure," Venus smirked with that know-it-all look that just sent Mars' teeth to grinding. "But the actual experience . . .?"

"His name, Blondie!" Jupiter snapped.

"Tatsuo Hiroyuki," Venus sighed. "Maybe you've heard of him."

"The movie star?" Mars gasped in shock.

"Why yes, I do believe he's acted in a few films," Venus grinned.

"Half of the women in Japan would kill to be in the same room with him!" Mars exclaimed. "He's the most popular, most gorgeous star in films today!"

Venus smirked at her again.

"So I hear," Mars added, cursing herself as she felt her cheeks reddening.

"Wait, weren't you starring with him in 'Princess Of Space'?" Jupiter asked.

"That's where we met," Venus grinned. "I knew him by reputation, but when we got on the set together, it just clicked. And the more time we spent with each other, the more electric it got between us. Hideki, the cinematographer, even mentioned during one of the dailies that you could see the chemistry between us on the screen." She giggled like a little girl. "We were even late for an afternoon call because we were," and she rolled her eyes with a guilty look, "exploring our relationship in his trailer."

"Well, I have to compliment you for taste, Blondie," Jupiter said. "If I wasn't married, I'd be having naughty dreams about Tatsuo Hiroyuki."

"Are you certain you and he thought this through thoroughly?" Mercury commented from up front.

"You don't approve?" Venus bristled.

"It isn't up to me to approve or disapprove," Mercury replied calmly. "It just seems to me that you and he have rushed into a commitment based predominantly on physical attraction. That is a mistake you've made before."

"What Tatsuo and I have is nothing like what I had with Tomo! Tomo was a mistake! This is love!"

"We've heard that before," Mars joined in.

"Stop trying to jinx this! Be happy for me!"

"We want you to be happy," Jupiter assured her. "We all want this to work out for you. But you don't exactly have a great batting average where this is concerned."

"Tell me something I don't know," Venus grumbled. "But it's more than just sex. Tomo was just sex. This is closer to what I had with Toshi. Only Tatsuo's ego isn't as fragile as Toshi's was." She grinned again. "And the sex is great."

"What about Ace?" Mars asked point blank. Venus looked at her.

"What about him?" Venus replied and Mars could read the anger and defiance in her. "Let him come. This is real this time. What Tatsuo and I have can withstand anything Ace tries."

"You sure?" Jupiter asked.

"Yeah," Venus told her. "Tatsuo's a great guy. He makes me happy. Don't I deserve to be happy?"

"We all deserve to be happy, Venus," Mercury said. "We're just concerned that you're setting yourself up again to be unhappy."

"Yeah, we remember how you were after you broke up with Toshihiro. We don't want to see you go through that again," Jupiter added.

"We're just trying to protect you," Mars said. "Because SOMETIMES you're your own worst enemy."

Venus chuckled. "I'm glad you said 'sometimes'. Look, I appreciate you three looking out for me. But I'm a big girl and I can take the consequences of my actions. Tatsuo's the one, I'm sure of it. But even if he isn't, I'm going to wring as much happiness as I can out of this thing before it goes south. No sense shying away because I might get burned at the end."

"I guess I can't argue with that," Mars replied.

"And the publicity will be a huge boost to my career, too," Venus added devilishly. She received groans from all three of her friends as Mercury pulled the Toyota mid-size into the Crystal Palace garage.

* * *

March 7, 1976; in the maternity ward of Tokyo's Teishin Hospital, a baby girl lay in a bassinet, swaddled in a pink blanket and sleeping peacefully. The baby had just been named Michiru by her parents, Kunihiko and Constance Kaioh and she was one day old. Mother was recovering in her room, while father was back at his workplace, obsessively micro-managing every aspect of his fish processing business. The small tuft of hair atop the child's head had dried, revealing that it was as golden as her mother's was.

The nurse attendant left the room to restock the ward's supply of topical bacitracin, as one of the newborns had been born with a sore on his arm. In the next moment, Lester Kelvion appeared, wearing his time suit. The infants were oblivious to him as he glanced around the room. Seeing no one, he picked up a spare blanket from a nearby table and walked over to the bassinet holding little Michiru Kaioh.

Holding the blanket, he plunged his hand down and smothered Michiru to death. The deed done, he pressed a circle on his suit and returned to his time.

* * *

"Venus, I am SO MAD at you for not letting me plan your entire wedding!" howled Queen Serenity. The Senshi had gathered in a palace conference room with Serenity, Endymion and the cats. On a conference call, Superintendent Sakurada listened in on speaker phone.

"Sorry, Serenity, but it was kind of spur of the moment," Venus replied. She noticed Artemis glaring and switching his tail, but didn't have the chance to address it.

"I can't believe you married Tatsuo Hiroyuki, V-Chan!" Sakurada added over the phone. "I want to know all the details - - after we deal with this, of course."

"Yes, can we get back to what happened," Mercury said, trying to mask her frustration with a business-like demeanor. "Combining what I learned at the site of the incident with what you passed on from Sailor Pluto has me greatly concerned."

"You think this guy might attack again?" Jupiter asked.

"If it serves his purpose," Mercury replied. "The question is what events does he intend to alter in order to ensure the string of events that will lead to the conclusion he desires seventy some years from now."

"And how do we stop him," Venus added.

"Pluto said she was going to handle it," Serenity told them. "I'd really like to help her, though. Not that I don't have confidence in her abilities. I'd just feel better about it if I could help her with this."

"Didn't Pluto tell you to stay in this time?" Luna said, her voice dripping with reproach.

"I know," Serenity whimpered. "But . . ."

"She is the expert in these matters," Mars said, picking up on Luna's statement.

"I won't mess up! I promise!"

"Maybe she's worried about you getting killed trying to protect her," Mars said, not backing down. "Risking your life in those situations is a habit with you."

"But what if she can't handle this person?" Serenity argued. "What if she ends up dying trying to protect me? There won't be anyone to stop this future person."

"Well, if she told you to stay put, I really think you should stay put," Venus told her. Then she flashed her devious smile. "Course she didn't say anything about Endymion and the rest of the Senshi, did she?"

"I like the way your mind works, Blondie," Jupiter smirked.

"The point is moot," Mercury spoke up. "None of us would be able to time travel because none of us know how to properly engage the Door of Time. Perhaps her warning to you was because she foresaw you making the attempt and becoming hopelessly lost in time, Serenity."

"You think?" Serenity squeaked.

"It's a reasonable conclusion," Mercury replied. "At the moment, all we can do is determine a means to neutralize Kelvion's temporal suit should he reappear in this time."

"I'll just hit him with a bolt of lightning and fry the circuits in his suit," Jupiter said.

"A reasonable first move," Mercury nodded. "But we must also have a means of detecting his appearance in this time should he return. And it must be far reaching; we must not assume that he will return to Tokyo should he even return."

"Before we come up with a plan, we really should bring Uranus and Neptune in on this," Serenity suggested.

"Who?" Jupiter asked.

Serenity scanned the faces of everyone in the room. The blank looks she got made her blood run cold.

Continued in Chapter 4


	4. The Forgotten Senshi

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 4: "The Forgotten Senshi"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

"Uranus and Neptune!" Serenity exclaimed again. She was once more greeted with blank looks from the Senshi who had fought beside them, the cats who knew everything about them, and the man who ruled them. "Haruka and Michiru!"

"Hon', I don't know who you're talking about," Jupiter said. She was honestly concerned by the look Serenity was giving her.

"Sailor Uranus! Sailor Neptune!" Serenity cried. "The Outer Senshi!"

"Your Majesty, the only Outer Senshi are Sailor Pluto and Sailor Saturn," Luna spoke up. "And Sailor Saturn went into the future to live with the Princess."

"Yeah, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune never activated," Artemis added. "We never did find out why."

"What are you talking about?" Serenity gasped. "They activated! They helped us against Pharaoh 90! Against Sailor Galaxia! Against the Queen Spider! They've been our friends for years! Michiru Kaioh? Haruka Tenoh?"

"Haruka Tenoh?" Venus asked incredulously. "The race car driver?"

"Yes! Only she's Sailor Uranus, too!"

"Haruka Tenoh's a woman?" Venus whispered in shock.

"Why don't you remember?" Serenity wailed. "Why don't any of you remember?"

"Your Majesty," Luna said, calmly but firmly, "there were never any Senshi named Uranus or Neptune. How exactly did you come to this belief?"

"It's not a belief!" Serenity cried. Immediately Endymion was up out of his chair and holding his wife, trying to calm and steady her. "They were real! They were our friends! Our fellow Senshi!"

"No, Your Majesty, they weren't," Luna replied.

"Wait," Mars said suddenly. She was staring directly at Serenity with that intense manner she had when she was reading someone. "She remembers them. Is it possible?"

"That someone used to be real and now isn't?" Venus asked, recalling the time a vengeful Tiangu did just such a thing to her. "Sure is."

"Working with that as a hypothesis," Mercury began, her demeanor haunted, "the logical conclusion is that Kelvion has possibly gone back into time and altered it by - - eliminating Michiru Kaioh from the time line."

Serenity's legs went out from under her and she flopped back into her chair. Tears began streaming down her face.

"You mean," she squeaked, "Michiru's dead?"

No one had the heart to answer.

"We have to do something!" Jupiter exclaimed suddenly. "Serenity could be next! Or one of us! Maybe all of us!"

"That observation is obvious," Mercury said. She was looking at the desk rather than anyone. "The question is what. Unless Kelvion returns to this time and we can capture him, or unless Sailor Pluto returns and provides us with a means of reaching the future or correcting the past, I can think of no other alternatives."

A pall of silence fell over the room.

"Maybe," Venus began, "we could make our own time machine?"

The silence from Mercury wasn't encouraging.

"I'm willing to try," Artemis spoke up. "Don't get your hopes up."

"Our time would be more productively spent on devising a means to sense Kelvion's location should he return," Mercury said. "But I'm willing to try as well."

"I'll contact some of the local tech firms to see if they can assist on the Kelvion sensor," Endymion told them.

"I'll do a fire reading - - see if I can get a premonition," Mars added.

Luna walked across the table, approaching Serenity, who was still crying. "Your Majesty," she began.

Suddenly Serenity lurched out of her seat and out through the door into the corridor. Luna jumped down and took off after her. But she entered the corridor just in time to see Serenity fade from view, teleporting who knew where.

* * *

Haruka Tenoh was standing by her Formula 1 car, surrounded by her pit crew and her racing team. Today would be the last practice run in the car before the French Grand Prix tomorrow. It was a new track - - The French Grand Prix was being held at Le Circuit Paul Ricard, in Le Castellet, whereas in previous years it had been held at the Magny-Cours track near Nevers - - and she wanted one more crack at it before the race to familiarize herself with it. Even without it, though, she was confident that she could win.

After all, what else did she have in her life?

Amid the din of other cars engaged in their practice runs, a commotion could be heard over by the grandstand. Haruka and several of the pit crew turned and saw several track people gathered around a young blonde woman in a white gown. She had fainted and two of the track people were trying to support her while a third fanned her with a laminated checklist.

"What do you suppose that's all about?" one of her crew wondered aloud.

"Who cares," Haruka grunted. "What about the check list? I don't want to take her out and find out somebody forgot something. This machine breaks down, I go to the back of the pack."

"Everything's fine, Tenoh-San," the crew chief assured her. "When have we ever let you down?"

"How about the Italian Grand Prix?" Haruka glared.

"That was four years ago!" protested her chief.

"Keep it four years ago," Haruka replied stonily.

"Hey, that woman! She's coming over here!" one of the crew exclaimed.

"Isn't that . . .!" another began.

"H-Haruka?" came a voice slurred from over-exertion. Haruka turned to Queen Serenity.

"I don't give out autographs," Haruka grunted and turned away.

"Haruka, don't you recognize me?" Serenity asked. She held her head with her right hand and she was pale and shaken.

"Yeah, you're Queen Serenity," Haruka replied in annoyance. "I still don't give out autographs."

"Tenoh-San!" said her crew chief in reproach.

"We're up in a few minutes," Haruka said curtly. "Get this machine ready to go." Reluctantly the crew moved off to do their jobs. Haruka began to don her racing helmet, but Serenity reached out with a shaky hand and stopped her.

"Haruka, we need to talk," Serenity said. "Please?"

Haruka's lips thinned. "All right. But make it quick. I've got things to do."

"Haruka, something's happened to Michiru."

"Who?"

For a moment, Haruka thought the Queen would burst into tears.

"The woman you love," Serenity told her.

"Nobody loves me," Haruka replied. "My parents disowned me. They turned my sister against me. And everybody else only curries favor from me because they make money off of me."

"That's not true!"

"It is for me," sneered Haruka, "Your Majesty."

Haruka turned to leave. But Serenity lunged. She grabbed Haruka's arm with her left hand, then jammed her right hand to Haruka's temple. Instantly the lanky blonde seized up. Her eyes bulged in surprise. Unable to speak, barely able to take a breath, she felt her legs give out from under her and sank to the asphalt track. Stunned and just a little afraid, Haruka looked up at the Queen.

"W-Who is that?" Haruka asked, for she was seeing a picture in her mind of a stunningly beautiful woman with shoulder length green hair, playfully superior eyes and a tantalizing mouth that hinted of mystery and passion.

"That's Michiru Kaioh," Serenity said softly, sympathetically. "That's the woman you love. The woman you would have loved - - if someone hadn't taken her prematurely."

"No," Haruka shook her head. "It can't be. Nobody could love me."

"We can get her back," Serenity continued. "But I need your help."

Haruka looked up to her. She saw the fervency of belief, saw that this little slip of a woman meant to bring about a miracle.

"What can I do?" Haruka shook her head again. "I-I'm just a race car driver."

"You're more," Serenity argued. "So much more. You're one of my Sailor Senshi: Sailor Uranus."

"Me, a Senshi? No way."

"It's true," Serenity maintained. "Believe in it and it will come true. I wouldn't lie about that. The power is within you, but you must believe."

"No, it's crazy," Haruka shook her head. "Things like that don't just happen. I had to work and claw for everything I got. Everything."

"And it's that fighting spirit that can make you Sailor Uranus," Serenity said.

She put her hand on Haruka's shoulder. Suddenly a golden henshin stick appeared before Haruka, glowing in the French afternoon. Haruka's eyes popped.

"Go on," Serenity gently urged. "Touch it."

Haruka reached out, her hands trembling. Her hands hadn't trembled since the first time she got behind the wheel of a car. Shyly she eased her hand over and lightly grazed it. The Henshin Stick leaped into her hand and her fingers closed around it reflexively.

"Uranus," Haruka mumbled in shock, the words appearing in her mind, "Planet Power." She glanced nervously at Serenity and received an encouraging nod. "Make up."

Seconds later, Sailor Uranus stood before Queen Serenity. She looked down at herself as the crowds of racing people and fans stood and stared.

"What the hell?" Uranus exclaimed.

* * *

Back in Tokyo, the meeting between the King and the Senshi had broken up. Endymion and the cats frantically tore off to try to track down Serenity. Brushing her worry aside, Mars got up and headed for the shrine to begin divination. Venus left as well, but kept her own council. Mercury folded her computer up and headed out. Jupiter, with no other way to help and with a concerned eye on Mercury, followed.

Mercury entered the palace's first floor lab. As Jupiter watched from the door way, Mercury sat down at a table, placed her computer in front of her - - and then just stared.

"Merc?" Jupiter inquired finally. "You waiting for Artemis?"

"Jupiter," Mercury sighed, "there's no way to build a time machine."

"That guy in the future did," Jupiter argued.

"He had access to sixty years of technological advancement," Mercury said, sounding defeated, "and some cryptic notes Yui buried somewhere on the web."

"But you've got something he doesn't," Jupiter countered. "The best brain humanity has ever known! And Artemis is no slouch, either."

"Thank you for the compliment," Mercury whispered. "But this isn't some deux-ex-machina of some fiction play where the resident scientific genius produces a miracle machine in the last act to set things right. I have very limited knowledge of even the basic concepts of temporal physics. I'm just a physician who reads some in her spare time."

"Merc, you're more than that!" Jupiter told her.

"No, I'm not. Perhaps in sixty years I'll have the knowledge to construct a temporal suit like the one Kelvion-San has. But we can't wait sixty years." Her lower lip began to quiver. "And even if I did manage to stumble onto a working process blindly," and a tear trickled down Mercury's cheek, "Kelvion-San could just go back into time and s-snuff me out . . ."

Mercury choked up. Jupiter moved closer to her.

"J-just like he did with this Sailor Neptune," Mercury choked out. She looked up fearfully at Jupiter. "Someone I can't even remember!"

"Hey," Jupiter cooed, hugging Mercury's face to her stomach. "It's going to be all right, Merc."

"To think that," Mercury continued, crying bitterly now, "that everything I've done, everything I've worked for, everything I've accomplished in thirty-eight years on this planet could be wiped away as if someone hit the delete button on a keyboard! Or everyone I've ever loved, ever cared about, could be stolen away from me in an instant, and I wouldn't even know!"

"I know," Jupiter said softly. "If I get erased, it's not just me who disappears. It's Akiko and Ichiro, too. That's why we have to stop him."

"How?" Mercury exclaimed. "There is no logical means to fight back! Not with the resources we currently possess! Only Serenity has a possible chance and Pluto warned her not to try! What do we do, Jupiter?"

Mercury began crying harder, her face pressed up against Jupiter's mid-section. Jupiter put her hands around Mercury's head and held her and let her cry. A few minutes later Artemis walked into the lab.

"Oh," the cat said, startled. "Sorry if I'm interrupting."

"No, please forgive me," Mercury whispered, timidly brushing at her eyes with her gloves. "I apologize for subjecting you to that unseemly outburst."

"Hey," Jupiter smiled, "you just said what I'd been thinking. Maybe I just don't have enough brains to be scared." She turned to Artemis. "You guys find Serenity?"

"Yes," Artemis replied incredulously. "She's in Le Castellet, France."

"FRANCE?" gasped Jupiter. "How'd she get there? And why there?"

"The most logical conclusion is that she managed to teleport," Mercury answered hoarsely, "somehow. I can't say what her physical condition will be like after a task such as that. As to why, given that I can't trust any facts that I currently know, it's difficult to say."

"So until she can get back," Artemis began, "we should try to come up with some way to counter all of this. I'm guessing the time machine is out?"

Jupiter nodded.

"How do you fight a guy who hasn't even been born yet?" the cat asked.

"What we need to do is get to the Door of Time," Jupiter concluded.

"To what end?" Mercury asked. "None of us has the proper knowledge to operate it. We'd likely end up lost in the past or the future."

"I'm willing to try," Jupiter replied grimly. "Being lost implies there's a chance of finding my way back. And it's better than just sitting here waiting to be erased."

"Perhaps," Mercury sighed. "Perhaps by using my visor, I could analyze the door enough to make an attempt to access it. But we would need to be able to breech the temporal nexus, a power no one has save Serenity."

"And Endymion," Artemis added. Hope grew in Jupiter.

"Even so, where would we be going?" Mercury asked. "Do any of us know the specific date where Kelvion first discovers his time suit tech? The year? And in what city?"

"Maybe the Door does all that for you," Jupiter said.

"Maybe," Mercury shook her head.

"Look, Merc, you've come up with a dozen reasons why this plan won't work," Jupiter argued. "But you haven't come up with a different plan. So unless you want to just sit here and wait to be erased, we might as well give it a shot."

"This plan has little chance of success," Mercury murmured, "but it is preferable to doing nothing. Contact Mars and Venus. I'll talk to Endymion."

Jupiter nodded enthusiastically and started for the door. But suddenly Mercury's hand shot out and caught hers. Jupiter looked back curiously.

"Thank you, Jupiter," Mercury said timidly, "for understanding."

Jupiter repaid the gesture with a wide smile.

* * *

"A skirt?" gasped the newly minted Sailor Uranus. "Look, I don't want to seem ungrateful, but, uh - - think I could trade this skirt for a pair of pants?"

"I'm sorry, but we've really got more important things to worry about, Uranus," Serenity said. Then she grew a mischievous smirk. "Besides, I think you look cute that way."

"That's the first time anybody's ever called me 'cute'," grumbled Uranus. "OK, so what now? Who's the guy who erased this woman in my head and where do we find him?"

"I don't know," Serenity groaned. "Pluto would know."

"Who?"

"Don't tell me you don't remember her, either!" Serenity wailed.

"Hey, I don't follow your Senshi that closely," Uranus shot back. "I've been a little busy living my own life."

"Well, Sailor Pluto is this very tall, very beautiful woman with long greenish black hair and a big key," Serenity explained. "And she's in charge of the Door of Time. And she travels back and forth in time making the world safe from people who want to change history."

"Yeah?" Uranus eyed the Queen with doubt.

"Oh yes," Serenity nodded.

"Then she's not doing a very good job," Uranus grunted. "You sure she's not the one changing history?"

"Oh, no!" gasped Serenity. "Setsuna would NEVER do that!"

"Man, you're as trusting as people say you are," Uranus shook her head. "Well, how do we contact this Sailor Pluto?"

"She's back in Tokyo," Serenity explained. "Although I don't know how we're going to get there. I don't think I can teleport us back. The distance is too far and you're way too big - - no offense - - and I don't think I could do it without hurting myself. And then Endymion would be upset and Luna and Ami would yell at me." She frowned. "And Rei would REALLY yell at me. But an airplane is so slow and we need to do this now. What do you think, Uranus?"

When no answer came, the Queen looked around. There was no sign of Sailor Uranus. Scanning the area to find her, Serenity locked onto the pit crew that had been working with Haruka. But they were no longer Japanese. And the car they were working on was a different color than the one Haruka had been next to.

And finally the awful truth dawned on the gentle Queen. There on the asphalt of the track she sank to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

Continued in Chapter 5


	5. Confrontation At The Door Of Time

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 5: "Confrontation At The Door Of Time"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

"And," the Queen sobbed over the Senshi Communicator, then hiccuped from the tears, "and then she just vanished - - like she was never there!"

Luna looked to Artemis and Endymion with a note of discomfort and received similar sympathetic looks in return. None of them could remember a Sailor Uranus, or for that matter a famous race car driver named Haruka Tenoh. But they could hear the anguish in Serenity's voice and their hearts went out to her.

"Luna," sniffed Serenity, "you don't suppose she was targeted because I helped her discover that she was Sailor Uranus, do you?" A sob shuddered out. "Because if I got her erased, I could never forgive myself!"

"Serenity," Endymion leaned in, "there's no evidence that it wouldn't have happened anyway. This Kelvion seems to be targeting all of the Senshi. This Sailor Uranus may have been on his list from the start."

"Then that means the others are in danger, too! Endymion, what are we going to do?"

"The first thing we're going to do is get you back to Tokyo," Luna interjected. "And by that, I DO NOT mean you'll attempt to teleport."

"Don't worry. I don't think I could make it anyway," Serenity murmured. "The trip here took a lot out of me. I'm not even sure how I managed it."

"That's very sensible of you, Your Majesty," Luna nodded. "Artemis is in the process of booking you a seat on a commercial flight. And His Majesty has been in contact with our Embassy in Paris. A car has been dispatched to your location and it will take you to the airport in Marseilles. Waiting for you there will be a courier with your boarding pass and passport documentation."

"Can't Endymion just send his jet to pick me up?" Serenity asked.

"Your Majesty, you're almost half way around the world," Luna exclaimed in exasperation. "The Royal Jet doesn't have the range of a commercial airliner."

"Well how long is it going to take?" Serenity sniffed.

Luna looked to Artemis.

"Um, twelve hours and twenty–seven minutes," Artemis reported.

"That long?" the Queen gasped. "But we have to deal with this now!"

"We are still subject to the laws of physics, Your Majesty," Luna replied with forced patience. "And we are not exactly idle on this end."

"Speaking of which," Endymion said, rising to full height, "I've got to see a lady about a door. Serenity, do everything the courier tells you to do. Try to get some rest on the plane. And I'll see you in about thirteen hours."

"Endymion!" the Queen said suddenly. Endymion looked at her through the communicator screen. "Kiss Setsuko-Chan good night for me, please?"

"Of course," he smiled. Luna disconnected. Endymion headed for the door.

"Guess she doesn't realize the time difference between France and Japan," Artemis chuckled. "Setsuko went to bed about two hours ago."

"I didn't want to bring it up," Luna sighed. "It would only confuse her."

"So," Artemis began, "what do you think Pluto will say about the plan the Inners have?"

"If she has any heart, she'll say 'yes'," Luna replied, "no matter how hopeless the plan may seem. Better to make a foolhardy gesture than none at all in this case."

Endymion walked down the hall of the Crystal Palace's second floor. As palace workers passed him, they nodded to him out of respect. He returned the gesture, even though his mind was elsewhere. His destination was the temporal nexus housed in the palace, the gateway that led to Pluto's domain and the Door of Time.

Waiting for him were the four Inner Senshi. As he approached, he took note of their demeanor. Venus was focused and serious, as she was during any mission. Jupiter was determined and eager to start. Mars was calm, trying to evoke a serene state in spite of the implications of what was happening. Mercury was subdued. She seemed pessimistic of the mission's chances, but was focused on making the best of it.

"Talk to Serenity?" Jupiter asked.

"Just now. She's flying home from France and will be here in about fourteen hours," Endymion reported. He paused a moment, hesitant to go on. "She said that another Senshi was erased - - a Sailor Uranus."

As one, the Inners seemed to tense. He knew the feeling. Who knew who might be next to be targeted? Perhaps even Serenity's love and protector.

"How's she doing?" Mars asked sympathetically.

"She's really broken up about this," Endymion sighed. "Somehow she can remember them when we can't after the time shifts, so she feels a greater loss than we do."

"All the more reason to get started and get this guy stopped," Venus replied. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I for one would hate to deprive the world of me. It's just not fair."

"Yeah, heaven forbid we deprive the world of you," Jupiter said with a small smile. Venus flashed her a grin back.

Taking the hand of Sailor Venus, Endymion began to traverse the nexus. Quickly the other Senshi joined hands and were pulled through.

Inside the nexus, they once more found the dank, foreboding, mist-covered nothing that was the temporal nexus. The Senshi looked around, Mercury engaging her visor. Endymion, being more familiar with the area due to his and Serenity's frequent visits, began walking. The Senshi fell in line behind him.

"Man, this place needs an interior decorator," Venus muttered as they walked. "You're good with that stuff, Jupe. Why don't you show her some swatches."

"I couldn't cheer this place up with a dump truck full of balloons," Jupiter responded. She glanced at Mars. "You OK, Mars?"

"This place always seems so - - alien to me," Mars responded. "There's no spiritual activity here. No auras. Every living thing has an aura. And a lot of things have spiritual entities watching over them. But not here. It's just so - - empty." Mars swallowed. "It reminds me of when I was psychically blind a couple of years back. And not in a good way."

"I've got something watching over me?" Venus wondered out loud. "I hope it's not a guy or else he's getting a free show when I shower."

"Thanks for ruining it," Mars sighed.

"I'm detecting the Door of Time's energy signature ahead," Mercury reported. "However, I'm not detecting any life signs. Sailor Pluto may not be here."

"Sure this mist isn't interfering with your visor?" Jupiter asked.

"Frankly, I'm not. But the possibility is unlikely."

The Door of Time was now visible. The group approached it. Jupiter and Venus were fixated on the door, while Endymion, Mars and Mercury looked around for some sign of the door's guardian.

"Sailor Pluto?" Endymion called out. There was no response.

"Now what?" Mars asked.

"We do what we came here to do," Jupiter replied. She reached for the knob on the door, intent upon going through it.

"Do not!" came a sharp command. The five turned and found Sailor Pluto suddenly standing before them, brandishing her Garnet Orb Staff. The staff rested in her hands at an angle and was, at that moment, non-threatening. But she held it so it could be brought to bear with a single movement.

"Pluto," Endymion began. Instantly Pluto took to one knee and bowed her head.

"My King," she said reverently. Rising to full height, she focused on Endymion. "I know why you are here, My King. I know of the plans of the Inner Senshi and I must strongly urge you not to follow through with it."

"Well maybe you don't know that this Kelvion is going back in time and picking us off one by one!" Jupiter exclaimed.

"Uranus and Neptune," Pluto replied with that world-weary calm she possessed. "I know. He has captured one of my future selves as well. And he is not finished."

"Then open that thing and send us to the future so we can put a stop to him," Venus argued.

"That would not be a wise course," Pluto maintained.

"Why?"

The question came from Endymion. He looked directly at her, not angry, not anxious, not in a demanding fashion. But Pluto seemed instantly shaken by the question. She took a moment to respond.

"Forgive me, My King," she said, not meeting his gaze. "I am trying to put this right. The Inner Senshi would introduce too many variables into the future. They would cause Kelvion to accelerate his plans and I might not be able to stop him. And there is danger."

"You've seen this?" Endymion asked.

"Yes, My King."

"Our entry into the future makes that future inevitable?" Mercury took up the line of questioning. Pluto's brow furrowed.

"Not inevitable," she admitted. "But much harder to correct."

"Can our entry sway the outcome and make victory more possible?" Mercury inquired.

"Yes," Pluto confessed. "But there is great risk, to you and to others. I cannot say more, but know that not all who go may survive."

"Hey, risk is our business," Venus said. "Kelvion's had his inning. I think it's about time we started pushing the envelope a little, see what rattles out of his cage." Mercury grimaced at the mixed metaphors, but said nothing.

"And it is because of this risk that I cannot allow you to go," Pluto replied.

"Endymion," Venus frowned, "maybe you need to pull rank here."

Everyone looked to Endymion. It was something he clearly didn't want to do. Pluto was a friend, and she was someone who always had a good reason to do what she did. But he wasn't certain she could defeat this enemy by herself. And he didn't like standing by when Serenity was threatened.

"Sailor Pluto," he said softly, "I command you to open the door to this future era."

Pluto's head bowed immediately.

"If you so command it, My King," she replied. "But I implore you - - do not accompany them! You and the Queen must remain behind. I beg of you!"

"All right," Endymion said, to Pluto's relief. "Send the Inners ahead. I'll stay behind."

"As you command," Pluto nodded. She then turned to Mercury and put her hand on the woman's shoulder. "And you must not scan, store or otherwise learn any technological advances from this era and bring them back to 2018. I know of your insatiable curiosity. For the future's sake, you must refrain."

"I will," Mercury assured her.

Turning to the door, Pluto pointed the Garnet Orb Staff at it and turned it a quarter turn. The door opened.

"Step through," Pluto said. "You will be transported to Geneva, Switzerland, in the year 2086. May victory be yours."

Nodding, the Inner Senshi stepped through the door and were gone.

* * *

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight 326 had finished its stopover in Amsterdam and was now entering Russian airspace in route to Tokyo's Narita Airport. Sitting in a middle seat on the airliner was Queen Serenity of Japan. Not everyone on the flight had recognized her, but everyone on the flight had noticed the fact that she was dressed in a strapless white gown. They also noticed the two Japanese Embassy guards that sat on either side of her and suspiciously eyed everyone who either approached them or looked at them.

"I wish you wouldn't do that," Serenity whispered to the man on the aisle seat as he watched a passenger walk down the aisle to the aft bathroom every step of the way.

"Our job is to protect you, Your," the man began, then remembered the Queen's earlier admonishment, "um, I mean Queen Serenity."

"None of these people are a threat to me," Serenity protested. "If anything, they're just curious because I look so unusual."

"It's our job, Queen Serenity. The King was very specific . . ."

"Well, Endymion worries too much," huffed Serenity.

["Um,"] the Flight Attendant began, in the face of intense scrutiny from the very lethal looking men on either side of the tiny young blonde woman, ["may I get you anything?"]

"What?" Serenity asked, not understanding the Dutch coming out of the attendant's mouth. "Oh that's right, you probably don't speak Japanese." She snapped her fingers once. "Is that better?"

"I-I was just asking," the Flight Attendant began in Dutch, though Serenity and the guards heard her words in Japanese, "if I could get you anything."

"I am kind of hungry," Serenity said. "And we're going to be flying for a long time. Do you serve meals?"

"We have a fine menu of traditional Japanese dishes created for us by Chef Masanori Tomikawa," smiled the attendant. "And we serve noodles and other snacks between meals, as well as Oolong tea or sake."

"Ooh!" Serenity squealed happily. "I'm going to be giving you a lot of business!"

"I'll bring you a menu," the attendant nodded and disappeared.

"Did either of you want anything?" Serenity asked the guards. "It's on me."

"Perhaps later, Queen Serenity," the guard on her right replied. The attendant returned and handed her a menu.

"We also have an in-flight movie starting soon," the attendant told her. "You can use the earphones in front of you to hear it. Just choose the preferred language."

"What's the film?" Serenity gasped.

"I believe the first film coming up is 'Zootopia'."

"Oh I love that film!" the Queen squealed. "Would it be all right if I stayed here forever?"

The Flight Attendant grinned. She really couldn't help herself.

* * *

The Inner Senshi appeared on a street in Geneva, Switzerland, without any warning. Momentarily disoriented, the four Senshi looked around them. The area had a sleek, modern look to it, with glass-fronted buildings rising up around them in all directions, the smallest eight stories and the largest forty-five. The roads were ribbons of a substance that resembled asphalt, but seemed smoother and more cohesive. The sidewalks were made of a silicon-based material and had a moving tramway embedded in them that pedestrians could step on and off. But the air quality was thick and carbonized. It hung like a cloud over the entire city.

"Interesting," Mercury observed. "The Door of Time is misnamed. It can obviously traverse spacial distances as well as traverse chronological distance."

"Meaning?" Mars asked.

"If it only just covered distances in time, we would still be in Tokyo. My visor places us in Geneva, as Sailor Pluto said we would be." Mercury looked up. "The air quality is quite different than in 2018. The result I imagine from intense industrialization." Mercury looked back to her computer. "I'm not detecting the energy signature that Kelvion-San used. I assumed the Door of Time would send us to a point where we could directly confront him."

"Maybe he's not in this era at the moment," suggested Mars.

"Uh, ladies," Venus sounded a warning, "the natives don't seem to be too happy we're here."

The Senshi looked at the crowds of people who were forming. Men and women, young and old, all clearly native Europeans from their look, all were pointing and staring at the four women in their Senshi fukus. Some were curious; most were either fearful or openly hostile.

["Who are you?"] someone yelled from the safety of the mob. ["How did you get here?"]

"Anybody catch that?" Venus asked.

"It sounded like French," Mercury observed. "Unfortunately French isn't one of the four languages I know." She pulled out her computer and tapped out a quick command. "I've engaged a translation feature on my Senshi Computer. It will translate anything said to us and broadcast a Japanese version., and translate anything we say to the speaker. Put these earpieces in one of your ears." She quickly handed out tiny white ear buds to the others.

"So?" came a stern male voice. Jupiter nudged the others and pointed them to a police officer who had pulled up on a motorcycle. He wore a black uniform and was armed with two very large automatic pistols in holsters, plus a menacing black baton dangling from his belt. His cruel, suspicious face was equally menacing. "What are you four doing?"

"Um, we . . ." Mercury began.

"We're performers," Venus interjected quickly. "With a local circus. We just wanted to look around your beautiful city. We kind of couldn't wait. That's why we're still in our show costumes."

The officer replied by drawing his weapon and leveling it at them.

"You foreigners think we are all stupid!" the officer snarled. In back of him, Mars could see three more black-uniformed officers pull up. "Put your hands into the air and make no sudden moves!"

Mercury complied immediately. Venus and Mars hesitated, but began to comply. Jupiter, though, had other ideas.

"We haven't done anything!" snapped Jupiter. "Why are you arresting us?"

"You foreigners ask that?" the officer growled. "You bring your crime and disease to our land! You undermine our culture! You try to rot us from within! And then you whine and howl about your rights?"

"We're human beings!" Jupiter protested.

"You're intruders!" he bellowed. "You're not wanted here!"

"So you just arrest us?"

"Arrest you?" the officer chuckled. Three other officers approached, guns drawn as well. "By order of the great Madame Charress, we are free to shoot foreigners on sight!"

And as the crowd of onlookers cheered, the four police officers opened fire.

Continued in Chapter 6


	6. The World of Madame Charress

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 6: "The World Of Madame Charress"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

The four uniformed officers opened fire with their automatic weapons to the cheers and applause of the watching crowd. The Senshi began to move, as their experience had allowed them to anticipate the attack. Venus, Mars and Mercury all began to duck, crouch away from the attack in hopes of somehow avoiding it. Jupiter stood her ground.

"Jupiter!" she shouted as the fingers squeezed the triggers. "Oak Evolution!"

Dozens of electrical bursts shot out from Jupiter. Some intercepted the slugs and deflected them from their deadly path. Other bursts slammed into the police officers, acting like tasers and forcing them to the pavement. As they lay twitching, the others regrouped around Jupiter.

"Knew there was a reason we kept you around," chuckled Venus. Jupiter just glared at the fallen officers.

"Maybe we better find some place private to plan our next move," Mars suggested. "From what I'm reading from that mob, we're not welcome here."

"I got that from the cops. Are they going to attack?" Venus replied.

"Not yet," Mars told them. "But they're working up their courage."

"Besides, there's no telling when these police officers will get reinforcements," Mercury added. "We need to find some place to learn what the situation here is and where we can find Kelvion."

"Well I can take care of the mob," Venus said. "Crescent Beam!"

Golden energy shot out from the pointed finger of Sailor Venus. It impacted at the feet of the watching crowd and tore up the pavement in front of them. That sent people running the other direction in blind panic. Using the distraction, the Inners turned and ran down a path between buildings.

"Well, there goes any hope of surprising our target," Mars sighed as they ran.

"You had a better way to deal with them?" Venus bristled.

"I'm not criticizing. We were blown the moment we appeared on that street."

"Maybe we need to revert to our civilian forms," Jupiter suggested. "If they're looking for Senshi..."

"That won't help," Mercury said as she concentrated on her visor readings. "We weren't targeted because of our fukus. We were targeted because we were Japanese. Didn't you notice the homogeneity of the mob?"

"White Europeans," Mars nodded. "And those police screaming at us about being foreigners. I could feel the waves of hatred and suspicion coming off of them."

Mercury stopped in front of a door. It was a back door facing a junction pathway between several towering structures. The metal door was locked with an electronic entry system.

"I'm scanning several empty rooms with the electronic ports I'll need," Mercury exclaimed. "We can use this for a while."

"Door's kind of thick," Venus said, running her gloved hand over it. "But I think I can carve it open."

"I have a better way," Mercury replied. She brought her Senshi computer over and, using her visor, downloaded the entry code from the lock, then broadcast it back to the electronic lock. In seconds the door popped open.

"Well, if you're going to use logic . . ." Venus quipped as the others cautiously entered.

Inside, the Senshi found a maintenance room with benches and tools. Some were familiar, like hammers and screwdrivers. Others were strange to them. Mercury immediately moved to a desk in the corner. It had a wafer-thin monitor on a stand, a compact keyboard, and a modem about the size of a cell phone. Mercury pulled a cable from her computer and jacked it into the modem. She began typing. Venus and Mars looked over her shoulders at the Senshi computer's monitor, while Jupiter looked over the bench of tools.

"Don't suppose it could be as easy as looking in the phone book under 'Kelvion'," Venus asked.

"I'm not even sure they have phone books anymore," Mars commented. "They were beginning to disappear in our era."

"Wonder what some of this stuff does," Jupiter wondered out loud. "It's weird. I look at some things about this place and I can't believe it's seventy years in the future. And I look at other things and it's hard not to believe." She paused and looked up randomly. "Seventy years. Akiko and Ichiro are all grown up, with families of their own. I wonder what they look like."

"Steady, Mommy," Venus said. "We've got a job to do."

"I'm not finding anything recent on Lester Kelvion," Mercury reported. "Entries stop ten years ago with a mention of his theory on reversing the aging process."

"Guess he's not all bad," Venus grinned.

"What about this Madame Charress," Mars suggested. "Maybe we can trace him through her."

"Madame Charress dominates local content," Mercury observed. "She was a popular television commentator who became a political activist twelve years ago. Her stances were very pro-nationalist, arguing that most of the European market's economic and social ills were the result of foreign infiltration into society. It was during an economic downturn that her views, coupled with a charismatic public persona, gained her a foothold in Swiss government. From there she rose swiftly to prominence, taking control of the Swiss government four years ago. After that, she began consolidating the European Union under her control."

"That song and dance again? You'd think these Europeans would learn," Jupiter sighed.

"The early part of the Showa Era in Japan shows we're not one to cast aspersions," Mercury replied. Suddenly she looked back at her computer. "Madame Charress is about to give a speech to the population. Perhaps we can learn more about her by listening to her."

While the other three watched the monitor, Jupiter acted as a lookout. A seal of the country of Switzerland faded from view, replaced by that of Madame Charress.

"People of the European Federation," she began, her eyes steely and confident as she looked at the camera, "we have come a long way. The economy is up. Crime is down. Our resolve and our vigilance has so far been rewarded. You who have chosen to follow me have been rewarded with a good life, free of want and fear."

"Too bad she hasn't managed a life free of jowls and dry skin," quipped Venus. Mars shot her a stern look and a mute demand for silence.

"But just because we're succeeding doesn't mean we've succeeded," Charress continued, a montage of European security forces beating or harassing a variety of black, arab, Hindu and Asian people playing behind her. "The infiltration of our paradise by outside forces continues. They still want what you have: jobs, money, a good life, and they'll steal it from you either through subversion or force. We must never let our guard down, for the threat is everywhere, waiting for us to relax our vigilance. This is OUR home. These are OUR riches and we must protect them from those who want to take them from us. I swore to do this and I've succeeded very well. But the job isn't done. Enjoy what you have, but never become complacent. Because that's when they'll strike."

The screen faded back to the country's seal.

"A little paranoid, isn't she?" Mars commented.

"It's a familiar method to rise to power," Mercury analyzed. "Seize on a social or economic problem distressing the public, then scapegoat a race, nationality or class of people for it. It absolves the masses of blame for their problem, and a promise to solve the problem by eradicating the scapegoat rallies the poorly educated and the desperate behind the political figure."

"So how does Kelvion fit in?" Venus asked.

"Maybe that's how she rose to power so fast," Jupiter suggested. "With Kelvion's ability to travel through time, he just goes back and erases her political opposition."

"A sound theory, Jupiter," nodded Mercury. "Since the Senshi are being targeted by Kelvion, I must assume Serenity and Endymion eventually took an interest in what was happening here. Madame Charress must have become uncomfortable with their interest and sent Kelvion to eliminate it." Mercury suddenly was struck with an idea.

"What?" Mars asked.

"Unless this is a ploy to alter history to the point that Japan falls under the sway of her European Federation without Serenity and Endymion in power."

"I think you need to find out where this chick lives so we can pay her a visit," Venus suggested.

Without warning, the outer door to the maintenance exploded inward. The force of the explosion hurled Mercury from her seat and sent the others ducking for cover. Entering through the blown door was a police officer wearing a seven foot metal cybernetic exo-skeleton with a telemetry visor over his eyes and high caliber machine guns mounted on his arms. The augmented officer lumbered to a stop and began spraying bullets.

"Mercury!" Mercury shouted, pointing her hands at the thing. "Aqua Rhapsody!"

From nowhere a wave of water engulfed the exo-skeleton up to its controller's neck. Just as suddenly it flash froze around him, trapping him in a thick chunk of ice. Even as the water froze, several more officers rushed in, armed with high caliber automatic weapons and body armor protection.

"I got this! Venus Love Me Chain!" shouted Venus.

Golden heart-shaped links shot out from the Senshi and sought out the first four police. They impacted each one, wrapping tightly around the upper torso of each, their momentum enough to slam them all to the floor.

"We need to go!" barked Mercury. She ripped the cord from the modem jack, then turned and shot out her hands. "Shabon Spray!"

The room was engulfed in a thick fog that rendered everything invisible. As more police clamored in, they were stopped by the blinding fog. The Inner Senshi exited out of the door leading into the building before the fog could engulf them.

"Be careful!" Mercury told them as they ran down a hall toward a door. "Knowing police tactics, they must have personnel guarding this exit!"

"Then we should make a detour!" Venus yelled. She stopped and turned to one of the walls, pointing her finger. "Crescent Beam!"

The golden energy battered through the wall, through the office behind the wall, and through the far wall, revealing the outside of the building. Venus waved to the others and the four Senshi piled through the opening to the outside.

"Now where do we take cover?" Jupiter asked. Overhead was a flying vehicle that looked like a futuristic helicopter.

"I'm not certain we can," Mercury replied. "Unless I'm mistaken, the telemetry on the visor of the cyborg that attacked us is tracking us in some fashion. If I knew what it was tracking, I might be able to jam it."

"Well, there's always down," Venus suggested, pointing to a sewer covering.

Moments later several armored police ran up to where the sewer entrance was. They spotted the cover ajar.

"They've gone into the sewers!" one told the others. "Get down there and flush them out! I'll send in a drone squadron to assist you!"

"Yes, Sir!" the other officers said. One by one they disappeared down the manhole. But inside the building opposite the one they fled and bracketing the manhole, the four Inner Senshi listened for sounds of pursuit.

"Looks like they fell for it," Jupiter whispered.

"Simple misdirection," Venus smirked. "I learned that from a magician I was an assistant to for about five minutes."

"Didn't like second billing?" Mars asked.

"No, the guy couldn't keep his hands to himself," Venus replied, her expression soured by the memory.

"We can't count on this spot being any safer than the last one," Mercury interjected. "We have to assume they can still track us, although I'm still not certain how they're doing it." Mercury frowned. "What I don't understand is why the Door of Time placed us here. Logically, it should have taken us to our destination, that being where Kelvion and Madame Charress are located."

"You are correct in your assertions," a voice said, "so far as they go." Everybody turned, ready to attack. But Sailor Pluto was the one who emerged from the shadows of the utilities room. "Security forces are tracking you even as we speak. Come," and she gestured for them to follow.

Using her visor, Mercury was able to see Pluto in the low light and she guided the rest. They exited the utilities room and slunk down a service corridor.

"How exactly are they tracking us?" Mercury asked. "Have they locked onto the energy signature of something? My computer or visor, perhaps?"

"It is nothing you possess," Pluto responded. "Rather, it is something you four do not possess. All verified citizens of the European Federation have an identity chip installed in them, by order of Madame Charress. Using this, it enables her security forces to identify those who are not verified citizens once a target is found via infra-red scanning."

"Of course," Mercury whispered. "An efficient means of identifying the 'foreign elements' they're so afraid of."

"So, do you know where this Kelvion is?" Venus asked Pluto.

Before she could respond, Pluto led them into another room, this one containing the HVAC system for the building. Sitting on a control box was another Sailor Pluto. This Pluto, however, didn't have her Garnet Orb Staff.

"I have returned," Pluto said to Pluto.

"I knew you would," Pluto said to Pluto. She glanced at the Inner Senshi. "So you are here, as King Endymion commanded. One potential time line fades and another comes more into focus."

"So what exactly does our presence bring about?" Mars asked, concentrating on the sitting Pluto.

"I cannot answer that. It is knowledge you must not know at this point in time," the sitting Pluto said. "But you are here and so this time line must play out."

"Yeah," Venus replied. "Back to my original question. Do you know where Kelvion is?"

"We do," the standing Pluto answered. "I cannot tell you where he is, but I can tell you he is currently not in this time."

"So he's gone back in time?" Mercury asked anxiously. "To erase someone else?"

The silence from both Plutos was all the answer the Inner Senshi needed.

"So why don't you go back and stop him?" demanded Jupiter.

"It is not a simple thing," the standing Pluto responded calmly. "I work to put things right, but I must work cautiously, err he traps and defeats me."

"It was just such a trap that occurred in your era," the sitting Pluto explained. "It led to my temporary capture and first alerted you to what was happening."

"And how many people die in the process?" Jupiter bristled.

Both Plutos only responded with a look of gentle sympathy, a look one might give to an angry child.

"OK, let's make the best of a bad situation," Venus interjected. "Do you know where Madame Charress is?"

"She resides in this very building," the standing Pluto responded. "She is secreted in a bunker twenty meters below us. The building itself is camouflage for her protective underground control center."

"Then The Door of Time did take us to our destination!" Mercury exclaimed.

"As best as it could," the sitting Pluto nodded. "With Kelvion gone, it could only take you to the point where he was due to reappear in this time."

"OK, how do we get to her?" Venus asked.

"There is an elevator that leads to her command center," the standing Pluto explained. "But it is guarded by a sophisticated computerized sentry system using state-of-the-art technology. Anyone approaching the elevator entrance would be scanned and if no identity chip is found, would be immediately fired upon."

"Perhaps I can hack my way in," Mercury suggested. "I assume it is wi-fi capable. Do you know what the security perimeter is?"

"Alas, I do not," Pluto replied.

"Can you get close enough to hack into the system without setting off the perimeter alarm?" Mars asked.

"I don't know," Mercury sighed. "It may be a risk we have to take."

"Maybe not," Jupiter spoke up. "No matter how sophisticated the computer, they still run on electricity. How about I short out the power to this place and shut her security system down?"

"No," Mercury shook her head. "Doing that would also shut down the elevator system."

Everyone thought for a moment.

"Say," Venus spoke up. "There has to be an emergency exit to that place that isn't dependent on electricity, right? Just in case of a blackout or a fire?"

"Yes," nodded the standing Pluto. "But it is guarded by the same security system so outsiders may not access it."

"Sure, but it's not guarded against Madame Over-the-hill," Venus continued. "Suppose we camp out at the mouth of this emergency exit while our own personal raging inferno sets off the fire alarms?"

Mars suddenly grew a Cheshire grin. The same grin grew on Venus when she saw it. Jupiter took a few seconds longer before she got it.

"It may be the safest means of capturing Madame Charress," Mercury nodded. "And once we have control of her, Kelvion would likely attempt a rescue."

Mercury stopped short, though, when she noticed the expressions shared by the two future selves of Sailor Pluto. It was almost like they knew what was coming and were resigned to see it happen.

Then the door to the room exploded inward. More police stormed into the room, firing automatic weapons. Behind them was another officer in another cybernetic exo-skeleton, tracking their every movement.

Continued in Chapter 7


	7. Mortality

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 7: "Mortality"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Automatic weapon fire sprayed over the room. Venus dived to the ground, hooking Mars with her arm and the two barely avoided being hit. As she moved, Venus saw one Pluto take the hand of the other and together fade away. Jupiter also narrowly escaped being hit by the spray of bullets.

Mercury wasn't so lucky. As Jupiter crouched behind some ventilation machinery, she heard Mercury scream in anguish. Peeking around the corner, she beheld her friend and fellow Senshi on the floor in a pool of blood.

"SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!" Jupiter roared, casting a ball of electricity at their attackers.

The ball leaped to the nearest gun, racing through it and up the arm of the officer holding it. From there, it arced to the rest of the squad and finally to the cybernetic exo-skeleton on the trailing officer. The entire squad of police shook in the grip of Jupiter's electrical attack while the cybernetic suit spat sparks and shorted out. When the current spent itself, the police dropped to the floor unconscious.

"Venus, Mercury got hit!" shouted Jupiter as she raced over to her friend.

Kneeling by Mercury, Jupiter could see she was alive. But she'd taken two shots to the stomach and her midriff was covered in blood. Mercury's hands were over the wounds as if she were trying to keep her insides from spilling out.

"What do we do?" wailed Jupiter. She looked urgently at Venus, the de facto leader of the team. "Venus, what do we do?"

"Uh . . ." Venus began, her mind racing.

"Stop," Mercury gasped out, "blood loss. Cauterize . . ."

"Shouldn't we get the bullets out first?" Venus asked fearfully.

"No time," Mercury grimaced. "Remove later."

Everyone instantly looked to Mars.

"All right," Mars whimpered. "But this isn't going to be pretty."

"Do it," Mercury hissed.

Mars took a steadying breath as Mercury removed her hands. Blood oozed out of twin wounds in her abdomen.

"Burning Mandala," she whispered, spreading her arms to her sides. The mystic symbols appeared before her, each one aflame. Then she brought her hands down to the wounds, hovering just above them. The symbols followed, shrinking until they surrounded each wound.

Mercury shrieked in pain as the symbols ignited against her skin. Mars' hands hovered for a few moments, then pulled away. The symbols dissipated. What they left behind was a black, burned, leathery, ugly wound.

But it was no longer bleeding.

"Did that do it?" Jupiter gasped. "Is she going to be all right?"

"Bleeding stopped," Mercury gasped, panting like it was difficult to breathe. "Still risk of internal bleeding . . . septicemia . . . s-shock . . .o-organ damage."

"We need to get her back home to a hospital," Venus decided. "If only Pluto hadn't cut out on us!"

"Well, that's an Outer for you," Jupiter fumed.

"But the Pluto from our time has to be watching us somehow, isn't she?" Mars proposed. "How else would she know to bring us back when we finished?"

"Indeed," they heard Pluto say. Turning, the three healthy Senshi found Sailor Pluto standing behind them. "I am here to return you to your time."

"Can you just take Mercury back?" Venus asked. "See that she gets some help? We've kind of got unfinished . . ."

But Pluto stamped her staff onto the floor and turned it a quarter turn to the right.

". . . business," Venus continued before she realized she and the others were back in the mists of the dimensional nexus. The Senshi expelled a breath. "Guess not."

"To leave you in the future would have been futile," Pluto would only say.

"And would it have been futile to stop time so Mercury didn't get shot?" barked Jupiter.

"I am forbidden," Pluto responded, "by command of The Queen."

"Then just jump back a few seconds and get us out so she doesn't get hit!"

"Forgive me if this seems cold," Pluto said. "The time line is fragmented at this moment, perhaps beyond what I can repair, and is fragmenting further with each trip into the past and the future. To do what you ask would only make things worse in the long run."

Jupiter wanted so badly to deck Pluto at that moment. Mars sensed this.

"Come on, Jupiter," Mars said sharply. "We've got to get Mercury to the hospital."

With that overriding concern, Jupiter was able to pull away. She scooped Mercury up in her arms and headed for what she thought was the nexus.

"I will guide you," Pluto said.

"We'll manage!" snarled Jupiter.

"Before Sailor Mercury dies?" Pluto asked.

Angrily Jupiter relented and the Senshi followed Pluto to the nexus.

* * *

King Endymion raced down the corridor of the palace. At his heels was Luna. Seeing the anxiety of the King, palace workers hugged the walls to give him a path.

"I told you as soon as Artemis got the call from Sailor Venus, Your Majesty!" Luna shouted, barely keeping up with the monarch despite her advantage in legs.

"Does Serenity know?" Endymion asked as he ran.

"Only if she somehow sensed it," Luna answered. "Neither I nor Artemis told her!"

"Keep it that way! Don't lie to her if she asks, but don't tell her until after she lands," he instructed. "I don't want her trying to teleport from a moving plane over Russia!"

"A wise assumption, Your Majesty," Luna nodded.

The Palace Infirmary was at this point in the development of the Crystal Palace little more than an in-house medical clinic for palace workers and their families. It wasn't really equipped to deal with gunshot patients. Endymion found the on duty doctor valiantly working on Sailor Mercury while the other Senshi looked on anxiously. They turned to Endymion as he entered the room, but they saw his concentration was solely on Mercury and kept quiet.

"What's her condition?" Endymion asked the doctor.

"BP is eighty over forty and shocky," the doctor replied. "Pulse is thready and respiration isn't good. She needs surgery, but I can't do it here and I'm not sure she'd survive the ambulance trip to a hospital."

"Understood," Endymion nodded.

He leaned in and scooped Mercury up in his arms as gently as he could. She still groaned in pain and everybody tensed. Moving her head slightly, Mercury opened her eyes.

"Endymion?" she whispered.

"I'm not going to let you die, Partner," he assured her. Mercury smiled, comforted by the reference that brought back memories of their days sharing a family practice.

With that, Endymion levitated into the air and passed up through the ceiling of the room. The doctor and the other Senshi watched in awe.

"I'll alert hospital to prepare for their arrival!" Luna said and darted off.

"Think he'll make it?" Jupiter asked anxiously.

"We have to believe," Mars told her. Just then, Venus heard her cell phone go off. She brought it out and put it to her ear.

"Oh, Tatsuo," she said. "No, I've been - - well, it's Senshi business." She listened to his reply. "No, I don't know how long I'll be." Again she paused. "Thanks, Tatsuo. I'll let you know when I know more." Once more she paused. "Yeah, love you, too."

"Think we can borrow a car and drive over to the hospital?" Jupiter asked.

"I'll call the guard station," Mars said. With that, Jupiter turned and mechanically headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Venus asked.

"To tell my kids I love them," Jupiter replied.

"Yeah," Venus nodded. "Good idea."

In the Ikegami quarters, Akiko sat at a table with her two friends from school and talked about the issues and concerns fourteen year old girls had. Each girl had a glass of fruit juice and Akiko was returning from the kitchen with a bag of veggie chips.

"Veggie chips?" one of the girls, a bespectacled blossom with short brown hair asked skeptically. Her name was Sakura.

"It's the only snack Mom will let in the apartment," sighed Akiko. "She threw a fit when I brought home a box of pocky." Her eyes glanced at the other friend, an American transplant of distant African descent with tightly curled black hair and a slim figure. Her name was Grace. "Can you put a coaster under that glass?"

"OK," Grace replied with barely contained amazement. She chuckled. "Your Mom?"

"She's the queen of the neat freaks," Akiko rolled her eyes. "You DON'T want to cross her on something like this."

"Your Mom sounds like a real piece of work."

Akiko sighed. "She's all right," Akiko exhaled, "I guess. I mean, she is Sailor Jupiter. That's a thousand cool points right there. I just wish she'd stop treating me like I'm a kid." She leaned her head back on the chair. "I have this recurring nightmare that she's going to be telling me what to do when I'm sixty."

"Tell me about it," Sakura sympathized. "If it were up to my parents, they'd have me shrink-wrapped and stuffed into a closet until I'm thirty. What is it with grown-ups?"

"I know," Grace nodded. "On the one hand, they're only doing it because they love us. But on the other hand, it's like they can't see that they're smothering us, too. I can't grow if I can't experience new things. But you think Mom listens? And Dad - - I'm afraid to even mention boys in the same house with him!"

"Or girls," muttered Akiko.

"What was that?" Sakura asked.

"Nothing," Akiko shook her head.

Just then the door slid open. The three girls looked and found Sailor Jupiter enter. Two of the three sets of eyes popped, as seeing a famous Sailor Senshi in an enclosed room was even more intimidating that seeing one on the street. Even Akiko stopped short, because her mother rarely appeared in their home in her Senshi identity. Makoto was very strict about keeping her personal life and her Senshi life separate.

"Something wrong, Mom?" Akiko asked, rising to her feet.

Jupiter responded by taking the girl, now only six inches shorter than she was rather than a full foot, in her arms and hugging her. Akiko didn't know how to react, other than with alarm.

"I just wanted you to hear it from me first," Jupiter whispered to her. "Mercury got shot on a mission. She's in the hospital."

"Aunt Ami got shot?" Akiko gasped. The two women parted and faced each other. "I-Is she going to be all right?"

"I hope so," Jupiter replied. "Akiko, I'm probably going to have to go out on mission again soon. I - - just wanted to tell you that I love you, and to mind your father until I get back."

"Yeah, sure," Akiko mumbled. Jupiter released her and headed for the door. "Mom."

Jupiter turned back to her.

"Don't worry. You're Sailor Jupiter. You'll kick their butt," Akiko smiled awkwardly.

"Thank you," Jupiter smiled. "But you are never going to get a husband with that mouth."

* * *

Arriving at the hospital in a palace chauffeured limousine , ironically the hospital Ami Mizuno had interned in over a decade earlier, the three healthy Senshi found a scene of pandemonium. The press crowded the lobby and the outside receiving area, barely restrained by hospital security personnel. Each was clamoring for an update on the wounded Senshi being treated there. With Jupiter acting as a human battering ram, the Senshi pushed through and up to the operating area. In the waiting area, they found Endymion and a liaison from the hospital. As they approached, they could hear some of the conversation.

". . .course she'll get the very best care," the representative assured the King. "We give that to all of our patients, but when we found out that it was Dr. Mizuno that was hurt - - well, she is still remembered here by some of the staff, in spite of the unfortunate circumstances of her departure."

"I'm just glad I still have admitting privileges here," Endymion sighed with fatigue. "And I remember Dr. Suzuki from my residence. He's a good man."

"Endymion, how is she?" Jupiter asked anxiously as the three Inners ran up.

"Still in surgery," Endymion informed them. "It's a good thing she was in her Senshi form and has that form's enhanced stamina. It may help get her past this. I suppose it depends on how much internal damage Suzuki-Sensei finds."

"Then she could still die?" Mars asked fearfully.

"Anyone with a gunshot wound, particularly an abdominal wound, could die," Endymion replied. "I think I understand now why Serenity hates them so much. Most other things used as weapons have constructive uses as well. Guns only have one use: to kill." Endymion drifted into thought for a moment, then came back. "What exactly happened?"

"Madame Charress's security forces got to us before we could get to her," Venus explained.

"And Pluto wasn't exactly a big help," Jupiter added bitterly.

"Pluto has reasons for her actions that we can't always see," Endymion replied. "Did you encounter Kelvion at all?"

"He wasn't even in that time period," Venus scowled. "Probably in the past erasing another one of Charress's enemies. The whole mission was a gigantic bust from the start." She looked Endymion square in the eye. "But I'm ready to try again."

"We pretty much don't have a choice," Mars added. "We either stop him or sit here and let him pick us off one by one."

"And that includes you and Serenity," Venus told him. "Because I don't think either of you are around in 2086. Not that 2086, anyway."

"I want to trust Pluto to solve this," Endymion sighed in frustration. "The fact that this future exists points to the possibility that she can't." He sighed again. "All right, prepare for another mission. I'll tell Pluto to send you back."

He glanced at the three Inners.

"But I suppose we can wait until Mercury is out of surgery," he added. "I don't want you worrying about her on mission. It might cloud your judgment."

His reward was the grateful looks from three Senshi.

* * *

Hours later, a KLM Dutch Airlines jet touched down without incident at Narita Airport. As the passengers departed the plane, they could see two dozen police cars and Self Defense Force military vehicles parked on the tarmac. At the gate, more police and security personnel ringed the area. They maintained a vigil until a particular passenger, flanked by two burly security people, emerged from the plane. At once a palace limo driver advanced on them.

"Hakura of the Crystal Palace, here to pick up the Queen," the driver said to the guards.

"Identification," one guard demanded.

"Oh, stop!" huffed Serenity. "That's my limo driver!"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the guard deferred.

"And WHAT did I tell you about that?" growled the Queen.

"Sorry," the guard tensed. "I meant Queen Serenity."

"That's better," she smirked. "Now when you get home, you give your son a big hug from me. He sounds like a fine boy." She turned to the limo driver. "I suppose you're here to whisk me back to the palace?" He nodded. "You're not even going to give me a chance to stop by the gift shop to buy souvenirs for Setsuko-Chan?"

Indecisively, the limo driver shrugged.

An hour later, the limousine pulled into the garage at the Crystal Palace. It had only been a ten minute trip from the airport, but the Queen, loaded with a bag of gifts for Setsuko, was eager to get out of the car. From the garage, she rode the elevator up to the third floor living quarters where the Royal Chambers were. Waiting for her outside of the elevator were the Inner Senshi.

"Oh!" Serenity gasped in surprise. "What are you all doing here?"

"Endymion sent us to meet you," Mars replied.

"Oh, he worries so much!" Serenity grimaced. "I'm probably going to give him gray hair. Well, tell him I'm all right. Or better yet, I'll tell him. But first I have to give these gifts to little Setsuko-Chan. Although maybe I should wait until morning . . ."

Then the Queen stopped in mid-thought.

"Where's Mercury?" she asked.

Immediately she felt everybody tense.

"Mars, where's Mercury?" Serenity asked again, her anxiety rising.

Continued in Chapter 8


	8. Confronting The Future

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 8: "Confronting The Future"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

It was late April of 1980. In the home of Shinjiro Hino and his wife Kei, the new parents looked down into the crib of a sleeping infant, a girl child they had named Rei. Shinjiro glanced from the proud accomplishment of his life to the woman he adored. As if sensing him, she glanced back at him in serene bliss. Those were the perfect words to describe his precious Kei: Serene bliss. It was a state she had an uncanny ability to maintain. What drew him to her at first was her porcelain beauty. She had the milky skin and the long flowing black hair and the bewitching violet eyes of a classic painting of Japanese myth.

But it was her state of bliss that kept him with her. Nothing seemed to bother her, not her fragile health, not his long hours at his law practice, or the state of Japanese society. She was a sea of calm, a refuge he could come to, to love and know love, and to find peace. And now their little family was three. Hino glanced back at the little bundle sleeping peacefully. She already had her mother's eyes. He wanted at that moment to do right by her, to make her life a joy and a success.

"Come, Shinjiro," Kei said, softly touching his hand. "It's time for bed. You need your rest for tomorrow."

"As do you," he smiled, leaned in and kissed Kei's cheek. "You look like you're about done in."

"I am a little tired," Kei admitted. "Hopefully Rei-Chan doesn't wake up at one again."

"I think she's going to do exactly what she wants to do," Hino replied with a smirk. "If she's anything like me, she has a willful . . ."

Suddenly a man materialized before them. He wore a metallic silver suit that covered his entire body and was adorned with red circles, and a red visor over his eyes. Hino's first thought was to put himself between this stranger and his wife.

"How did you do that?" he gasped. "What do you want?"

Lester Kelvion's response was to throw an energy discharge from his palms. It struck Hino and his wife, knocking them to the floor. The two parents sagged into unconsciousness.

Looking around, Kelvion walked over and grabbed a pillow from the bed. He turned back to the crib and walked over to it. Little infant Rei, awakened by the energy discharge, was crying petulantly. Kelvion took the pillow in both hands as he loomed over the little girl.

But the pillow's descent was stopped by the golden crown of a staff, the crown housing a glowing ruby orb. Kelvion looked up and found Sailor Pluto on the other end of the staff.

"Not this day," Sailor Pluto replied.

"Then another," Kelvion replied. "You can't guard her every day of her life. Or the other three, or your King and Queen. There aren't enough of you."

"You seek to occupy my attention so that one of your future selves can ambush me from behind," Pluto said. "It shall not work this time. I have erected a barrier around this moment, preventing any more travel to this point."

Kelvion grew angry. "So you win this point. But as I said, there are others. You don't have enough . . ."

"I need not spread myself so thin," Pluto interrupted. "I shall stop you. But I offer you the chance to surrender now, for you clearly do not see the consequences of your current actions."

"Consequences?" huffed Kelvion. "I am eliminating opposition to my leader's great triumph, so she may reign unhindered by foreign plots and aggression! What do I care about consequences?"

"Fool," Pluto scowled. "If you eliminate the inner Senshi before they assume their roles, there will be no one to aid Sailor Moon against the plot of Queen Metallia and her agent Beryl. She will fall, and so will the world. And your precious Madame Charress will never come into being."

"Lies," sneered Kelvion. "Poorly thought out lies at that. You can't turn me away from my mission with feeble lies like that."

"It is the truth," Pluto maintained. "I have foreseen it."

"There is only one truth!" Kelvion shot back. "Madame Charress is that truth, and I will do everything in my power to bring about the world she envisions!"

Punctuating his declaration, Pluto jabbed her staff into Kelvion's middle. He staggered back, lost his footing and stumbled to the floor. Pluto was on him in an instant. Before he could press one of the circles on his suit, she brought her staff up.

"Dead Scream," she said.

Sonic energy lanced out from the staff and struck Kelvion square. The battering force sent his visor skittering away. He sagged to the floor and didn't move.

Sailor Pluto took one step toward him. Kelvion then faded into nothing, leaving his visor behind. Pluto scowled at having to allow him to escape. Unfortunately, for the time line she wanted to survive, she had to let him escape. She picked up the visor and examined it.

"No doubt Kelvion had an automatic recall programmed into his suit," Pluto thought, "should he lose consciousness. Significant, as is the importance of this visor." She took a breath. "It is a victory, but a fragile one."

Before leaving, Pluto knelt down and checked on the fallen Hino couple. Satisfied that they were all right, Pluto ascended to full height, then paused by the crib of infant Rei, still crying from fear. Her hand gently came down and cradled the baby's head.

"Fear no more, fellow Senshi," Pluto whispered to her. "The danger is past. Grow strong, I charge you, so you may one day protect our Queen and bathe in her glory."

Rei responded, her crying dimming. When the infant was sufficiently calm, Pluto touched her staff to the floor and gave it a quarter turn, then disappeared.

* * *

"Where's Mercury?" Queen Serenity asked.

Immediately she felt Venus, Mars and Jupiter tense.

"Mars, where's Mercury?" Serenity asked again, her anxiety rising.

Mars took a breath to steady herself. "She's in the hospital."

"Hospital? Is she operating on someone? Was someone hurt?"

Mars tried to go on, but her voice faltered. Serenity only stared, waiting for an answer to her question.

"She got shot," Venus said, hating herself for every syllable she uttered.

"SHOT?" gasped Serenity. "Is she all right?"

"Endymion said she got through surgery," Venus told her. "The wounds were pretty bad. She took two bullets in the stomach."

"How? What happened?"

"We," Venus began, searching for the strength to tell her what had happened, "went into the future - - to 2086 - - to try to find this Kelvion and stop him. But we got ambushed by the security forces there and they managed to hit Mercury."

Serenity's legs seemed to go out from under her. She flopped down onto the floor, sitting in a pool of rumbled white gown, and just stared into space. Immediately her three friends were at her side.

"Come on, Serenity, stay strong," Venus told her. "We got to her in time. Mars cauterized her wound and the doctors got the bullets out. And they sewed up her internal injuries. She's still in her Senshi form, so she's strong - - strong enough to beat this! Don't go burying her yet!"

"She's right, Hon'," Jupiter offered. "You got to believe she's all right. If we all believe it, then so will the gods."

"I've got to go to her," mumbled Serenity. "Got to heal . . ."

"No!" Mars said firmly. She pressed her palms down on Serenity's shoulders. The Queen stared at her, in shock, tears streaming down her face. "You've done too much too soon! Do not risk yourself like that!"

"But Mars," Serenity whimpered.

"Trust the doctors," Mars told her firmly. "Trust Endymion. He's with her. He'll look out for her."

"All right," Serenity sighed. "If Endymion's sure . . ." Her head fell into her hands. "This is a nightmare! First Neptune, then Uranus, and now Mercury!" The three Senshi glanced at each other, puzzled by the strange name "Uranus". "This has to stop!"

Galvanized by sudden determination, Serenity rose to her feet.

"This has to stop," she repeated and glided off down the hall.

The Senshi glanced at each other, then hurried off after her. They caught up with her just before she reached the staircase to the second floor.

"What are you planning?" Mars demanded.

"This has gone on long enough," Serenity answered. "I'm going to put a stop to this. No one else is going to die."

"Sounds like a plan," Venus nodded. "We're coming, too."

"No," Serenity replied. "It's too much of a risk."

"Serenity," Venus cut her off. "WE'RE here to protect YOU."

"Besides," Jupiter smiled sadly, "Mercury's our friend, too."

Serenity bowed her head for a moment. "All right."

She led them to the temporal nexus and ushered them through into the mists of the area between the passage of time. Serenity seemed certain of her path, so her friends followed her. Sure enough, after a short walk, they arrived at the door of time. Like an apparition, Sailor Pluto appeared out of the mists to their right.

"You honor me with your presence, My Queen," Pluto said, kneeling before her. Serenity waited for her to rise before speaking.

"Pluto, we're going to the future," she said. "I'm going to stop this man." With those words, an expression of intense anxiety washed over Pluto's normally calm face.

"My Queen, I beg of you, do not," Pluto said. Mars, normally unable to read Pluto's emotions, could feel the waves of terror coming off of her.

"I have to, Pluto," argued Serenity. "I have to end this."

"My Queen, I vow to you that I will put this situation to right," Pluto pleaded. "Please do not do this. You do not comprehend the risk involved!"

"I can't sit idly by and watch others die, Pluto," Serenity replied gently. "Not when I have the power to do something. Apparently there's risk. There's always risk when you make a stand for life against those who would take life. But this needs to end. If I have to die to end it, so be it. Better I die keeping others safe than watch others die from safety."

"My Queen," Pluto said with intense anguish, "forgive me. I must refuse you - - for your life and for all of the lives to come. Forgive me."

Serenity stared at her for a beat, her expression not one of anger but of compassion and sorrow for having brought Pluto to this moment. Then she turned, her skirt billowing behind her, and glided to the Door of Time. Pluto moved to intercept her, but she had the door open and in a moment was gone.

"Holy crap, she did it!" Venus gasped. She whirled on Pluto. "Where is she? Did she make it?"

"She did," Pluto replied softly, sadly. "To operate the Door without a Time Key - - the Queen is truly amazing."

"Send us there!" Mars exclaimed. "We have to protect her! You have to send us there to be with her!"

"Of course," Pluto nodded. "But remember, your only concern is her safety. Nothing else matters."

The Inners looked at her, sensing the gravity with which Pluto spoke.

"We won't let anything happen to her," Jupiter nodded.

Satisfied, Pluto pointed her staff at the Door and turned it a quarter turn. The Door opened on its own and the Inner Senshi ventured through. The Door closed behind them, leaving Pluto alone. Her eyes closed.

"A moment passes; a path closes and another opens," she said. Then she shuddered. "Oh, My Queen, I beseech you: Choose the right path."

She planted her staff and gave it a quarter turn. And Sailor Pluto faded from view.

* * *

Endymion sat by the bedside of Sailor Mercury. She slept silently; it was almost death-like. Only the rhythmic beep of the vital signs monitor broke the silence. Occasionally, obsessively, he would glance up at the monitor, hoping for better news. Then he would return his gaze to her.

As he watched, he thought about their days sharing a practice, before the coming of the ice disaster and his world turning upside down. And at once, Endymion realized he missed those days. Even though he saw Ami at the palace every day, even though she was one of his most trusted, most knowledgeable advisors, he missed the time when they were partners in the fight against disease and injury. He would come to work and she'd already be there, prepared for the new day. They'd work until four, helping each other, covering for each other, bracing the other in times of need. Usagi would arrive and she and Ami would talk. Then Usagi would escort him home to their private paradise.

At once, he sensed a presence in the room. Endymion looked and found Hayami standing at the door, hesitant to enter and intrude even though it was his own wife in the hospital bed. Instantly Endymion stood.

"Hayami. Come in," Endymion said.

"How is she?" the dumpy man asked, his glasses sliding down his nose.

"Stable," Endymion told him. "The surgeon retrieved all of the bullets and believes he got all of the bleeding stopped. It's just a question now how well she reacts to the antibiotics." His face dimmed. "She's going to have some nasty scarring on her stomach and abdomen, both from the surgery and from the cauterization Mars had to perform."

Hayami nodded absently. Focused on Mercury the entire time, he slid into the chair Endymion had vacated. He reached for her hand, then stopped.

"It's OK, isn't it?" he asked, looking up at the King. "To touch her, I mean."

"Just be careful of the IV shunt," Endymion nodded.

Clasping Mercury's hand, Hayami leaned in. He could tell it was Sailor Mercury and not his wife, even though her fuku and tiara had been removed for surgery. Sailor Mercury had a superior quality to her, even in repose, that Ami didn't. But it was still the woman he loved inside, and that was what counted.

"I'm here, Ami," he whispered. "You don't have to face this alone."

Endymion turned to leave, to give the couple some privacy.

"You know," Hayami began, causing Endymion to stop and turn around, "I've always worried about something like this. I've always been afraid that I'd be in this exact situation some day."

"I know," Endymion softly told him. "It's difficult to deal with. It's a credit to you that you stay and deal with it. Some men might not."

"Do I deal with it?" Hayami asked. "Is spending the times she's out on a mission fearing that I might get that call - - the call I got tonight - - is that dealing with it? Or is it just a case of being too timid to do anything else?"

"I think your love for her gives you the strength to stick it out," Endymion told him, putting his hand on Hayami's shoulder. "And I think your character gives you the strength. I know Ami and she wouldn't have married someone who wasn't of good character."

Hayami nodded and went back to his vigil for his wife. Endymion turned and left, not certain if his words had convinced Hayami or not.

* * *

The three Inner Senshi materialized just behind Queen Serenity. They gave a collective sigh of relief that Serenity wasn't hurt. Then they noticed her confusion.

Then they noticed their surroundings.

"Things haven't changed much in fifty years," Serenity remarked.

The room was a little girl's room. The furnishings were pink and girlish, with lots of lace, and spotlessly neat. There were two potted plants in the room, one at the window and the other by the bed. Dolls and stuffed animals were arranged precisely on a shelf by a dresser.

But in the corner was a soccer ball and it was well worn.

"This isn't Madame Charress's complex," Venus exclaimed. "This looks like a little girl's room. Pluto said Serenity had arrived at her destination. Was she lying?"

"Pluto wouldn't do that," Serenity maintained.

"Then what are we doing here? Serenity, what were you thinking when you entered the Door of Time?"

"Um," Serenity thought. "I wanted to go to Kelvion. I wanted to try to convince him to stop doing this."

"Hmm," Venus pondered. "Suppose this is where Kelvion is headed? That we're actually in the past?"

As if jolted, Mars seemed to jump. She quickly turned and stared in amazement at Jupiter. Alerted by her actions, Serenity and Venus turned to their companion, too. They saw Jupiter staring in growing horror.

"I know this place," Jupiter whispered. "Gods, I know this place."

"Jupiter?" Serenity asked.

Interrupting, the door to the room opened. In stepped a five year old girl with brown hair done in a bouncing ponytail. She wore a knit blouse and blue twill shorts. There was a bandage on her cheek and another on her knee. But rather than distressed, she seemed happy with the world, as if bumps and bruises were the price one paid for having fun.

The girl froze in the doorway when she realized that she wasn't alone. She stared up at the Queen and the three Senshi with wide, wondrous green eyes. Intimidated at first, the little girl quickly screwed up her courage.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "What are you doing in my room?"

"This is my room," Jupiter whispered, her voice trembling. "That's me!"

Continued in Chapter 9


	9. Saving The Past

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 9: "Saving The Past"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Serenity, Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus stood in shock, their gaze shifting from their companion Sailor Jupiter to the little five year old girl in the doorway: little Makoto Kino. For her part, Jupiter just stared, stared at a face she once saw in a mirror wearing an annoyed scowl as her mother brushed her hair.

They noticed little Makoto begin to shy and edge toward the door. Immediately Serenity knelt down and offered her most bewitching smile.

"Hello, Mako-Chan," Serenity said gently. "We apologize for showing up in your room uninvited. We don't want to hurt you. We're looking for someone who has done something wrong. We want to catch him and stop him from hurting people. And we heard that he was going to show up here." She flashed her big blue eyes at the child. "I hope you can forgive us."

"Who are you?" little Makoto asked. She was frowning, trying to understand, and everyone in the room recognized the expression that their friend had used a thousand times before.

"My name is Serenity," the Queen said gently.

"You sure you should be telling her that?" Venus cautioned.

"It's all right," Serenity replied. She turned back to Makoto. "Maybe you should go sit with your parents where you'll be safe. I don't know when this man will show up, but I don't want you to be in danger."

"Can't I help?" Makoto asked. Serenity seemed surprised. "If somebody is doing bad things, we all have to do everything we can to stop them and protect other people. That's what my Daddy says."

"Oh, you're so sweet for offering," Serenity beamed. "But we're better equipped to handle this than you are. We have - - special abilities."

"Like Team Gatchaman!" Makoto gasped. Serenity heard Venus snort out a laugh behind her.

"Yes, like," Serenity began, "um, Team Gatchaman."

The Senshi heard footsteps on the stairway and tensed. The door opened wider and a man entered. He was big, broad and gave the impression of a coiled spring. Venus noticed the thick brown hair and the very handsome, masculine face. Mars noticed the intelligent look in his eyes and the gentle, controlled manner of his movements. Serenity noticed the concern for his home and his daughter when he spotted them.

"Dad?" Jupiter squeaked like she was seeing a ghost. That stilled the question he was about to ask. Little Makoto turned to him, grateful for her rock of strength.

Jupiter was across the room in an instant. She wrapped her arms around the man and crushed herself to him.

"Daddy!" she sobbed, squeezing him tight. Her father was startled by this and tried to gently push Jupiter away. "Dad, don't you recognize me? It's me! Makoto!"

"Makoto?" he asked incredulously. He glanced down at his little girl, staring up at him in utter confusion. Then he looked back at Jupiter and the light of recognition brightened in his eyes. "Makoto? But how?"

"Oh, Dad, I've missed you so much!" Jupiter sobbed. "I'm sorry we have to meet like this! I'm from . . ."

"Jupiter, I don't think you should be telling him that," Mars admonished.

Jupiter stared at her, stung. She turned back to her father. For a moment, there was turmoil within her. She caressed his cheek with her gloved hand, then backed away. Her father was just as confused as little Makoto was.

"I apologize, Sir," Serenity said and bowed to him. "But this spot is about to become very dangerous. Please take your daughter to a safe place."

"Who are all of you?" he sputtered out.

"I really can't explain that. Just think of me as a friend."

"She said her name was Serenity, Daddy," little Makoto offered. "I think we can trust her." Her father placed his hand lovingly on her head, but still glanced with uncertainty at the Queen and her three Senshi.

In the corner of the room by the window, space seemed to shimmer for a moment. And suddenly, Lester Kelvion was there, wearing his temporal suit. Little Makoto gasped in amazement, while her father's eyes grew wide.

"How?" Kelvion gasped in surprise. "How did you know to come here?"

"SUPREME THUNDER!" roared Sailor Jupiter, bellowing with all the rage she suddenly felt at that moment.

Before the disbelieving eyes of the elder Kino and his daughter, lightning jumped from the rod extended from Jupiter's tiara and leaped at Kelvion like a ravenous animal. A blue-yellow field encompassed him for a second, then sparks began spitting from two of the red circles on his suit. Kelvion faded from view, reality rippling in his wake. With nothing left to conduct it, Jupiter's lightning bolt dissipated.

"Great," sighed Mars. "Now we have to chase him down again."

"Sorry," grunted Jupiter, her anger still smoldering.

If that wasn't enough to astound the Kinos, another ripple brought Sailor Pluto into the room.

"I'm sorry, Pluto," Serenity offered. "We let him get away."

"I know this, My Queen," Pluto nodded. "I have come to ferry you back to The Door."

"Um," Serenity began. "Can - - can Jupiter say good-bye first?"

Pluto sighed, a rare glimpse of emotion from her. "Yes, My Queen. This moment in time is already damaged so badly that it can do no harm that hasn't already been done."

Jupiter walked timidly over to her father. Little Makoto was staring up at her, though she kept her father between them at all times. Jupiter could see he was struggling to understand.

"You're," he began tentatively, "from the future. Right?"

"Yeah, Dad," Jupiter smiled through tears. "All grown up. I even gave you grand kids. You'd love 'em both."

"You say that like," he swallowed, "I won't be around to see them." And Jupiter suddenly wanted to rip her tongue out.

"Oh, Dad, I'm sorry!" Jupiter cried and hugged him again. She felt his arms fold around her and she sobbed on his shoulder just like she'd done as a girl.

"We all have to go sometime," he whispered. "So you're what - - a magical girl? Guess I shouldn't be surprised. You're probably the best one." He pulled back to look at her tear-stained face. "And you've managed to become a crusader for justice," and he smiled warmly, "and a lady."

Jupiter looked like she was about to burst.

"You mean," little Makoto spoke up, "you're me?"

Jupiter knelt down to her. "Yep. Hope you're not disappointed. Now you keep doing what's right, no matter how tough things get. Make your parents proud."

Jupiter stood up and nodded to Pluto. And just like that, they were gone.

The mist were no more friendly than when they'd left. As usual, Mars looked around with suspicion and distaste, for this place made her most uncomfortable. Pluto turned to them, looking directly at Queen Serenity.

"I'm sorry if we made things worse," Serenity offered.

"Forgive me, My Queen," Pluto cut her off. "I shall return shortly." And with a quarter turn of her staff, she disappeared.

"She must really be mad," Serenity sniffed.

"Maybe not at you," Jupiter mumbled. "I'm sorry, Serenity. But when I saw Dad alive, I just kind of lost it." She thought a moment. "Weirdest thing: before we went back, I had no memory of meeting us as a little girl. But I've got one now. Suppose that's my fault? If I hadn't lost it, maybe we wouldn't have changed the past?"

"We understand, Jupiter," Serenity smiled at her. "It's been so long since you've seen him, and I know how much you miss him."

"He seems like a very wise and kind man," Mars added.

"And kind of hot," Venus added.

"Blondie, do not lust after my dad," Jupiter bristled. Mars added a condemning glare.

"So," Venus began, quickly changing the subject, "are you going to try again, Serenity? You've already shown that you can operate The Door without Pluto."

"I don't know how," Serenity marveled, "but I guess I can. But where do we go to find him? He could be anywhere?"

"You didn't know where he was before," Venus reasoned. "But The Door took us right to him. It even let us ambush him." She glanced at The Door. "Makes me wonder if the thing is alive."

"It's not alive," Mars stated flatly. "But it's not natural, either."

"Should we try again?" Serenity wondered. "You saw how mad Pluto was. I don't want to make things worse."

"She wasn't as mad as you think she is," Mars assured her. "And Jupiter managed to damage his suit. That means he's vulnerable. Now is the time to run him down."

"Yeah, maybe that's why he came back to off little Makoto-Chan," Venus suggested. "He knows she's a threat to his suit. All the more reason to go after him. Pluto will just have to deal."

And just like that, Pluto was there again. Venus jumped back, startled.

"You didn't happen to hear that, did you?" Serenity grimaced.

"Long ago, My Queen. You all walk a path I have already foreseen," Pluto replied. "And please do not concern yourself that I might be angry with you. I could never be such. I merely had to travel into the past to prevent Kelvion from killing the infant Rei Hino."

Everyone gasped and turned to Mars. For her part, Mars put her hand to her throat and looked momentarily ill.

"Then I guess there's no choice. We have to go after him," Serenity said. She looked at Pluto. "Please don't try to stop us."

"I no longer have that ability, My Queen. You have proven that conclusively," Pluto said. "But again I beg of you, you must take every precaution. You MUST NOT recklessly gamble your life. I know that you feel differently, but in this particular case, YOUR LIFE is the most important one."

"All right, Pluto," Serenity assured her.

"You're welcome to come along," Venus said. "We could use all the Senshi we can get, particularly with Mercury down."

"Alas, I cannot," Pluto replied. "Reality even now fractures because of the efforts of Lester Kelvion and the efforts against him. At this point, I am the only thing holding back its complete collapse. I will try to aid you when I can, but you must not depend upon me."

"Do what you have to do," Venus nodded. "Well, back to the future, ladies."

Serenity walked over to the Door of Time and opened it. She and her Senshi plunged in, leaving Pluto behind.

* * *

Endymion was in his office, sitting at his desk. His hand was to his face and his fingers were pressing against his eyes. In addition to the burden of running a nation, his wife was off fighting a deadly menace and a close friend was injured and fighting for life. He knew that burden came with the position of king, but right now he could feel his back bending under the strain. If only he could be by Serenity's side. He wouldn't worry so much. Seeing Hayami in Mercury's room brought home once again the haunting prospect of losing the woman he loved and being alone again.

"Papa?"

He looked up. Seven year old Setsuko was in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, Setsuko-Chan," he smiled. "Did something wake you?"

"Where's Mama?" Setsuko asked. "I thought she was flying back tonight."

"She did. Don't worry."

"Is she on a mission?"

"Yes, she's on a mission with the Senshi."

"Is it dangerous? They say Sailor Mercury got hurt."

He sighed. What to tell her?

"Yes, it's dangerous," he admitted, getting up and walking over to the child. Endymion picked her up and cradled her against his chest. "That's why your mama and the Senshi have to face it. They're the ones with the best chance of winning."

"I wish she didn't have to go," Setsuko mumbled, clinging to her father figure.

"So do I," Endymion told her as he walked her down the hall. "So does she. She misses you terribly."

"I know," Setsuko said. "Is she going to be back for her birthday? I made her a present." The child began to grow emotional. "I really want to give it to her."

"And she really wants to get it," Endymion cooed. "That's why she's going to do everything she can to get back so you can give it to her. And we have to wait for her."

In Setsuko's room, Endymion sat her down on the edge of her bed.

"What if she doesn't come back?" she asked. "Sometimes people don't come back. Sometimes . . ."

"Believe," he said gently. "Believe in her until every shred of evidence says otherwise. I've put my faith in her and I've been rewarded many, many times. If anybody can, she can."

"But if she can't?"

"Even if she doesn't come back," Endymion said, "she'll always be with you."

"Like Mom and Dad and Onee-Chan?"

"Yes," Endymion said, hugging her. "Think you can go back to sleep now?"

"I'll try."

He kissed her on her forehead. "Do you want a story?"

"I'm seven, Papa. I don't need stories anymore," Setsuko sighed.

"I apologize," Endymion smirked. "Good night, my brave little girl."

He got up and began to leave. But at the door, he heard Setsuko whisper to herself.

"I'm not that brave," she said softly.

* * *

Serenity and her Senshi materialized in a room packed densely with electronic equipment. Florescent light illuminated the room. It was twenty feet by twenty, but seemed smaller due to the crush of computers, electrical generators and component equipment.

"Yow! Mad scientist central!" marveled Venus. "I think I saw this set up in a movie once."

"You suppose this is Lester Kelvion's lab?" Mars wondered. "The place where he built that time suit?"

"Mercury would know," Jupiter mumbled.

"Hell, Mercury would take one look at this place and wet herself," snorted Venus. She got withering looks from Jupiter and Mars. "Oh, lighten up! I'm worried about her, too!"

"But where's Kelvion?" Serenity asked.

"Maybe he's in hiding," Jupiter looked around.

Mars tilted her head back and closed her eyes. Everyone looked at her with mounting concern. After almost a minute, she tilted forward and opened her eyes.

"He's not here," Mars said flatly. "I only sense the spirit energy of four people."

"So why did the door bring us here?" Serenity asked.

"Well, it took us to the past in advance of Kelvion getting there," suggested Venus. "Maybe it's doing that again - - giving us a chance to ambush him when he does get here." She glanced at Jupiter and Mars. "I know. My head's beginning to hurt, too."

With that, the far door opened. The Senshi turned in time to see futuristic-looking drones fly in. Without warning, the drones opened fire on the Senshi with projectile weapons. Serenity was barely able to shield the others with an energy barrier.

"Look out!" Venus shouted. "They're separating! They're trying to surround us!"

"Jupiter!" shouted Sailor Jupiter. "Oak Evolution!"

Bursts of electricity began popping in the air all around the room. One popped against a drone and caused a surge that burned its circuitry out. The drone dropped like a stone to the floor. Two more bursts caught two other drones and disabled them in similar fashion.

"I've got the fourth one!" Venus shouted. "Crescent Beam!"

The beam of energy shot from the fingertip of Sailor Venus and tracked the flight of the drone until it struck, slicing the metal craft in half.

"Nice watchdogs," Venus commented. "I could use one of those when the paparazzi get a little too pushy."

"And you said there's no such thing as bad publicity," Mars smirked.

"Well I lied. Trying to get a picture of me in the shower is crossing a line," Venus said. She spotted the eye-popped look from Serenity. "Actually happened on the set of 'Princess of Space'. I'll tell you about it some time."

To their left, reality seemed to warp for a moment. And suddenly Lester Kelvion was there. On his right side, two of the red circles of his suit were a darker shade of red, as if they were dark and inert. Spotting the Senshi, his eyes widened in shock.

"How are you trailing me?" he exclaimed. "How are you beating me to my destination? It's that one! The one with the staff! She's doing it!"

"Kelvion-San," Serenity started forward. "Please, we don't want to hurt you. But you must stop what you're doing. You're doing unimaginable harm to people and history and even time and space itself."

"No," he shook his head with the fervency of the righteous. "I'm remaking the past! Altering it for a better future! A future where Madame Charress is the undisputed, unchallenged ruler of Europe! A future where we will all prosper!"

"At the expense of the lives of other people?" Serenity asked incredulously.

"Other people? Intellectuals and social radicals who weaken us and pollute the minds of our children! And foreign devils who want to infiltrate our society and leech our wealth and vitality until they're in control and we're nothing!" He sneered in contempt. "So what if they die? The world is better off!"

"No!" Serenity exclaimed. "No one is better off by killing others! No one improves themselves through hate! Only through joining together and understanding each other and peacefully coexisting can humanity become better than it is now!"

"Just what I'd expect to here from a Japanese mongrel pretending to be European," scowled Kelvion. "I'm sure that blonde hair came out of a bottle. Do you think you can infiltrate us that easily?"

Again the door to the lab flew open. This time, though, there were no self-defense drones. There was a squad of twelve soldiers, all armed with automatic weapons. They quickly entered the room and pointed their weapons at Serenity and the Senshi.

Continued in Chapter 10


	10. The Enemy Of Brotherhood

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 10: "The Enemy Of Brotherhood"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

The squad of soldiers leveled their guns at Serenity and the Senshi. With a shouted word, they simultaneously pulled the triggers to open fire.

But nothing happened.

"I'm sorry, but your weapons won't work," Serenity said. "There's a better way than violence." She turned back to Lester Kelvion as the Senshi watched the soldiers. "I have the ability to render your suit unable to work, too. But I want it to be your choice. I don't want to impose my will on you. I want you to see that there is a better way than hatred and violence."

Despite their weapons being useless, the soldiers surged forward. Venus and Jupiter crouched to take them on.

"I've got them!" Mars shouted. "Burning Mandala!"

The sacred symbols appeared in flame on the floor surrounding the surging squad of troops. The troops stopped, amazed by the sudden appearance. As the flames climbed higher to block their path, the men fell back and huddled against each other to keep from being burned.

"NO!" screamed Kelvion. "PUT THAT FIRE OUT!

His demand was punctuated by an explosion that filled the room, throwing soldiers in one direction and Senshi in the other.

* * *

Endymion sat in a chair in the Royal Chambers. It was after ten. He should be asleep. But sleep wouldn't come to him. His mind wouldn't shut down because it was too concerned about his wife and the other Senshi. Having to stay behind made him feel so powerless. He understood why he had to stay, but it didn't comfort him. With Serenity out of the present, he couldn't even sense her, couldn't even sense whether she was in danger.

Turning to the noise the door made sliding open and closed, Endymion saw Luna enter.

"Your Majesty," the black cat began very reluctantly, not wishing to intrude, "there is a call."

"For me?" Endymion asked.

"Actually, the gentleman is asking for Minako," Luna reported. "He gives his name as Tetsuo Hiroyuki. Perhaps you were unaware that he is Minako's latest husband." She paused for a moment. "Artemis is quite unsure of what to tell him, but is equally unsure as to whether or how to put him off. Perhaps you have some insight into the question?"

Endymion thought a moment.

"Transfer it up here," he said. "I suppose if we're going to be cousins-in-law, I should get to know him. Maybe in talking to him, I'll figure out what to say."

"Very good, Your Majesty," Luna nodded and scampered off. Moments later, the phone on the table next to his chair rang.

"Hiroyuki-San? This is King Endymion speaking," Endymion said over the phone.

"King Endymion?" Tetsuo gasped. "I wasn't expecting you!" He paused. "But maybe you can give me some answers. Minako has been gone an awful long time. She said she was on 'Senshi business'. Does it usually take this long? I'm a little worried."

"I understand. It sort of comes with being married to a Senshi," Endymion answered. "There's no set time for how long a mission lasts. We just have to help them when we can and wait for them to return. I'm sure that will take some getting used to."

"Yes," Tetsuo murmured. "But then, a lot of Minako takes some getting used to. I knew going in that she was a Senshi. I think that might be the quietest part of her life."

"That's true," Endymion smiled. "Forgive me if this is personal, but I don't read the gossip tabloids. How did you two become a couple? Did you meet on a movie set?"

"I guess you don't read the trades," Tetsuo replied. "Minako and I are starring in our latest picture, 'Princess of Space'. I played Major Tanaka, the commander of the galactic space force. Our characters spend half the film feuding over jurisdiction and the other half in a steamy romance none of the other characters know about." He chuckled. "It was kind of a case of life imitating art."

"Oh?"

"The first time we kissed was on set," Tetsuo recalled, "and from that moment on every moment with her was electric. I felt an instant attraction to her. After a few days, I asked her out after filming. She must have felt it, too, because she instantly agreed."

"Nobody else knew about it?"

"No. Minako insisted on it. She told me why later." He paused again. "Your Majesty, she's an amazing woman. She's so full of energy, so full of life. And she's so unpredictable. Minako is like no woman I've ever met. By the time the film wrapped, the thought of not being with her was too much to take."

"So you asked her to marry you."

"Yes. She didn't want to, at first. She was afraid. I'm sure you know why. But then, she suddenly decided to accept. I like to think that she realized she didn't want to be without me, either. Or maybe she just got tired of living in fear."

"That's the Minako I know," Endymion said. "Very impulsive, coupled with a great deal of drive and conviction."

"Yes," Tetsuo said. "I'm not sure what I'd do if I lost her."

"Hiroyuki-San," Endymion began.

"I've had relationships with other women," Tetsuo continued. "One of the perks of being a leading man is that there are always women wanting you. But Minako is the first woman I've ever been in love with." His voice seemed to cloud up with emotion. "I don't want to lose that, not so soon after I found it. How do you stand it, Your Majesty?"

"Endymion is fine," he said over the phone. "The only answer I have is that you realize that she's fighting for something better than what we have. You believe that she'll come home, and that if life proves you wrong, you honor her fight and her spirit and continue the battle on her behalf." Endymion took a moment to collect himself. "I know that may sound inadequate, particularly with the taste of her still on your lips, the way the taste of Serenity is still on mine, but it's all we have. Believe she'll come back, until she doesn't, and grieve for her if she doesn't, knowing her sacrifice was for a noble cause." He sighed. "I hope that wasn't too maudlin. Being married to a Senshi had its good moments, too."

"No, thank you for trying to explain it to me," Tetsuo said. "The waiting for her return is going to be excruciating. But I'll do it, for her."

"Stop by the palace if you like," Endymion told him. "Most of the other Senshi are married. Maybe we husbands can find some common ground, maybe watch a baseball game, and keep ourselves from worrying too much."

"Thank you, Endymion," Tetsuo replied. "I might do that."

* * *

Serenity snorted suddenly and was awake. There were a few moments of confusion as she tried to recall where she was and why she blacked out.

"There was an explosion," she mumbled. She'd been with her friends, in the lab. Forcing herself up to a sitting position, Serenity balanced braced on one arm and looked around.

"The means of charging the power packs for my temporal suit," Lester Kelvion said, standing ten feet away from her, "is based on a chemical transfer that involves ether." He frowned. "Which is flammable and explosive."

"This isn't the lab," Serenity murmured.

In looking around, she spotted three tables in the far corner of the room, a room otherwise decorated with large television screens and computer equipment. On the tables, strapped down and unconscious, were Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus. Each Senshi had electronic monitors patched onto their heads and bodies that linked to a computer control displaying their vital signs. Each Senshi wore a breathing mask connected to a pressurized tank. They each had intravenous feeds injected into their arms. Serenity squealed in alarm and struggled to her feet.

"Don't do anything to those med-computers," came a stern voice. "It's the only thing keeping them alive right now."

Turning to the sound of the voice, Serenity saw a woman sitting on a throne. The throne was mounted on a pneumatic steel pillar that was descending into the floor. Looking down on her from the throne was a tall and slim woman with thick black hair cascading down her back. She had a disdainful look on her aging face and wore a gown that proclaimed her perceived superiority loudly. Her eyes were focused on Serenity and the Queen could see they held both a triumphant contempt for her and a deep hatred.

"The IV and the gas keep them asleep," she informed Serenity. "The computer monitors their condition and regulates the gas and the IV solution. Should anyone tamper in any way with the physical computer itself or its programming, it will alter the solution and the gas into a lethal dose." She smiled. "I can also alter that mixture by pressing this button," and she pointed to the right arm of her throne. "So do what you're told."

"Are you Madame Charress?"

"You must be from the past," Madame Charress snickered. "I'm the most famous person in the world."

"Why are you doing this?" Serenity asked. "Don't you understand how much damage you're doing?"

"Yes," Charress said incredulously. "I just don't care. I am blessed, blessed with the opportunity to change this society into something great, and blessed with the will to seize that opportunity. When Kelvion came to me with his theories and his plan to make my reign permanent, I knew I was blessed. So what if people die and history changes? They're my political enemies and a bunch of sub-human foreigners. It's not like it's a big loss to the world."

"That's not true," Serenity said, shaking her head. "Every life matters. Everyone contributes something to this world."

"Really?" Charress asked, leaning on one arm. "Right now in Africa or Southeast Asia or Central America there's some primitive with no money, no food, no education, sitting in front of some shack he cobbled together from the garbage of other people. His single focus is existing for another day. You're standing there and telling me, with a straight face, that he contributes something to this world?"

"Well said, Madame Charress!" Kelvion remarked, clapping.

"He could," Serenity replied, "if he were given the chance. We all carry within us the seed of greatness, the ability to affect this world and its people for the better, if only given the chance. And to lose that life deprives him of that chance and deprives us all of what he could have become."

"Yes, a selfish, violent, animal leeching or stealing the work and accomplishments of those who do achieve," sneered Charress.

"Why do you think that way?" Serenity asked. "I know there are people in the world who do bad things, but it's because they don't know. I can't condemn them for their evil actions. I have to show them the right way. And I can't condemn an entire race or sex or religion because a few of their number go astray."

"I think that way because I live in the real world," Charress told her. "Not in some childish utopian dream. I've seen what they do. And one day I said 'enough'. And I used my voice and my ability to communicate with the masses to show them that there was a way to live in peace and prosperity without the threat of some mongrel killing you for what you have."

"Something terrible must have happened in your life to make you think that way," Serenity said. "I'm sorry. I wish I could do something to change that and eliminate the pain you feel. But what you're doing isn't going to help ease the pain you feel. It's only going to cause you more."

Charress stared down at Serenity from her perch.

"I'm so glad you're dead," Charress muttered. Serenity stared back, puzzled by the remark. "In this era, you're dead. You died in 2018. Kelvion went back in time and killed you."

Serenity turned in shock to Kelvion.

"I already went back to that era once to do the deed," Kelvion told her. "But I was stopped by that woman with the staff. But I'll try again. And I'll keep trying until I finally succeed."

"But first, you're going to address the European Federation," Charress added.

* * *

The nurse looked in on patient one and her visitor. The vital signs monitor showed that patient one, Sailor Mercury, was stable, though critical and very weak. She glanced at the IV bags and saw everything was fine. Then she looked at Mercury's visitor, her husband Hayami. Hayami was asleep in a chair by her bed, his arms wrapped across his chubby stomach and his chin on his chest. A tremendous surge of sympathy welled in the nurse for him. Normally visitors were shooed out after visiting hours. But word came down from the king himself that Hayami be allowed to stay as long as he wished. The previous nurse on shift had even brought him something from the hospital cafeteria.

"Nurse?" she thought she heard. At first she wondered if she heard it at all. When it was repeated, her first thought was Hayami. But he was still asleep. Shifting to Mercury, she saw the Senshi weakly waving her up with a hand. The nurse approached. "Condition?"

"Critical," the nurse replied.

"Scope of injuries?"

"You sustained severe damage to the stomach and transverse colon," the nurse reported. "The stomach wound was closed, but the colon had to be resected." Mercury nodded. "There was some onset of septicemia, but we're treating it with Amoxicillin until the specific bacteria can be identified."

"That fits with the way I feel," Mercury sighed. Talking seemed to exhaust her. The nurse glanced up at the readings. Her temperature was still elevated.

With a snort, Hayami woke up. He looked around for a moment, focused on the nurse who was looking at him with just a little surprise. Then he saw that Mercury was awake.

"Ami!" he exclaimed. "You're awake! I was so worried . . ."

"I apologize for worrying you," Mercury exhaled weakly. "Shouldn't have happened in the first place. I should have detected the advance of . . ."

"Shh, that's not important now. The important thing is that you get well."

"You know my condition?"

"Yes, I talked with the doctor."

"Then you know that my prognosis is still touch and go," Mercury whispered. Hayami could feel how clammy her hand was. "I-I don't want to leave you, Hayami, but you should be prepared for the possibility."

"No, Ami," Hayami said. "You're going to get better."

"Hayami . . ."

"You'll get better," he assured her.

"Even if I do," Mercury began, "my injuries may prevent me from continuing as a Sailor Senshi."

"As long as you're still with me," Hayami told her, "it can be in any form."

"You're being emotional, rather than rational," Mercury chided him, though the corners of her mouth betrayed how much comfort she drew from the statement. "How are Serenity and the others?"

"After they brought you back, I understand they went into the future again," her husband reported. "What is going on? Who are they fighting?"

"The head of a fascist cult in the future," Mercury said, her breathing heavy, "and her disciple who has mastered temporal travel and is altering the past." Mercury's eyelids began to droop. "I hope they don't," and she began to drift off, "need me."

As Mercury slept, Hayami watched her. He hoped they didn't need her, too.

He hoped they'd never need her ever again.

* * *

The pedestal throne lowered until it was level with the floor. Madame Charress stepped off and approached Serenity, removing a handheld device from the arm of her throne as she rose.

"Careful!" Kelvion exclaimed. "Don't get too close to her! She might try something!"

"She doesn't dare," Charress replied with haughty superiority. Then she waved the handheld. "I still hold the key to the survival of her little group. She'll do everything I say as long as I hold this. Right, Queen Serenity?"

"Yes," Serenity said reluctantly.

"Come over here," Charress said, grasping Serenity by the upper arm. They walked to a bank of television monitors. Charress pressed a button on a control panel and one of the screens switched to an image of them standing in the room. "This is where you'll make your address." She glanced at Serenity. "I don't want to give you stage fright, but here's a hint of just how many people will see this broadcast."

Another button changed the rest of the screens to shots of vast crowd of people in different cities. The background scenes were all different, but they were all jammed with people watching remote broadcast screens with fervent anticipation. If this was just a small portion of the people under her influence, Madame Charress controlled hundreds of millions, maybe more.

"You see how powerful I am?" Madame Charress leered. "You see how loved and adored I am. Far more than you'll ever be."

"It's nothing to brag about," Serenity answered. "Not if you control them with fear and hatred."

"What better way?" Charress asked. "And I had the perfect enemy, too: You. A well orchestrated media and philosophical blitz of the people, using you as the face of the looming invasion force that would steal away the life they knew brought them over to my side. I managed to expose every foreigner for the threat he was, all by making you and your compulsion to interfere in the lives of everyone the face of that threat.

"However, one of the unfortunate drawbacks of Kelvion going back to 2018 and killing you," Charress continued, "is that I can't give them a triumph over the threat to their way of life. I've kept you 'a threat' by saying that you were in hiding, waiting to attack when the people let their guard down. But that can only last so long. The message was beginning to wear out." She smiled. "Then you fell into my hands."

"What are you planning?"

"You're going to go on video stream, the enemy finally captured," Charress explained with glee. "You'll rant about how you'll sweep over our nation and convert everyone to your cult, even as a prisoner." Charress's grin widened. "And then you'll be executed before billions of my adoring followers."

Continued in Chapter 11


	11. Fatal Choice

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 11: "Fatal Choice"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Queen Serenity stood before the mighty complex of television monitors, next to the woman who had just pronounced her death sentence. She turned to Madame Charress.

"Very well," Serenity responded. "But after you kill me, will you please let my friends go in peace?"

"Maybe," Charress replied with a wicked smile that told Serenity she probably wouldn't, no matter how much Serenity wanted to believe in some spark of human compassion within the woman.

"I'm the one you want!" Serenity cried. "Won't my death be enough?"

"And if they want revenge?"

"They won't!"

"Then either you're not as good of a friend to them as you think," Charress responded, "or you don't know them as well as you think." Charress and Serenity locked eyes for a beat. "But I don't want anyone to say that I'm not as benevolent as the 'Great Queen Serenity'. I'll have Kelvion return them to their time," and she waved the remote in front of Serenity, "AFTER our address to the people."

"All right," Serenity sighed, clinging to the hope that Madame Charress wasn't lying.

As Charress began pressing buttons on the video control panel before her, Serenity looked up at the monitors displaying remote shots of crowds gathered to watch the address. The venues were different; they weren't just different venues in Switzerland, but in France, Germany, Italy and Austria as well. One monitor looked like the picture was from England. But all the scenes were the same: crowds packed together, all expectant. Some were chanting nationalist slogans or waving signs that had anti-foreigner messages.

And on one monitor, there was a scene of five men and women beating another man as he lay in the street and tried to protect himself. Serenity felt tears welling and she looked away.

"How could so many people be seduced by such a horrible message as this?" Serenity wondered, despair coloring her voice.

"It's very simple," Charress replied as she typed. "You give the people what they want: a little financial security, a little personal security, and someone to blame for their lives not measuring up to their aspirations. It's much more palatable for people to think their failure is the result of someone else rather than their own inadequacies."

"Someone must have opposed you," Serenity shook her head. "Not everyone is that easily swayed."

"There was opposition," Charress said, "at first. But the more power I gained, the easier it was to outlaw unwelcome ideas and statements. It's an easy process as well." She glanced up at Serenity, that air of smug confidence about her. "First you discredit them. It doesn't have to be the truth, though the truth is better. Just as long as people believe it. If they persist, you shout them down. Having control of the media helps. And if they still persist," and Charess smiled directly at Serenity, "you have them killed. Since I came to power, every foreigner has either been killed or driven from this country. And every member of any opposition I've had is dead." She chuckled. "It's amazing how quiet they are now."

Charress noticed tears trickling down Serenity's cheeks. She snorted derisively.

"Crying for their lost souls?" Charress mocked.

"And yours," Serenity replied. Charress whirled violently on her.

"You're crying for me?" she snarled. "I am the one in control here! I have the power over millions of lives! I am loved and adored by an entire continent! Those people hang on my every word! They live for me and they die for me! I am in total control of them, just like I am in total control of YOU!"

She pulled back to reassert some control over herself.

"So save your sanctimonious tears for yourself!" Charress spat.

Serenity glanced over at Kelvion. The man stared at Madame Charress in awe. It made her doubt whether her ambition of bringing peace to the world was feasible.

"Now, Queen Serenity, you're about to go live," Charress announced.

She reached down and pressed a button on the console.

"People of the European Federation," the woman addressed a camera mounted on the main console, "this is Madame Charress. After years of dogged pursuit and the sacrifice of dozens of lives of our brave countrymen, the criminal Queen Serenity has finally been run to ground and captured. She stands next to me now for all of you to see."

Charress stepped to one side as the camera picture enlarged on the monitor, revealing Serenity behind her. Across all of the other monitors, excitement and surprise rippled through the watching crowds. Cheers swelled up from them. They built upon one another, feeding on each other until the cheer swelled into a raucous din. Serenity looked at it with mounting distress. It was like she was seeing humanity itself disintegrate before her eyes. She wanted to act. But she remembered the lives of her friends hanging in the balance. Did she dare do anything other than what Madame Charress told her to do? But the pictures she was seeing from all over Europe continued to assault her. Finally she couldn't take any more.

"Please!" Serenity cried, lunging toward the camera. "This isn't the way! Hatred and violence doesn't make you secure! It makes you alone! It robs you of the benefits that you can reap by helping and being helped by others! We're all one race, all one people! Together we can all be more than the sum of our parts! But divided by hatred and suspicion, all we can do is destroy ourselves! Please listen to me! Please!"

"Get back, filthy foreigner!" Charress snapped and dramatically backhanded Serenity. The woman staggered back several steps and stared amazed at her captor's cruelty. "The criminal Serenity will be executed so that the European Federation will finally be safe from her insidious plot!" she announced. "But first, a word from our sponsor." And she pressed a button on the panel.

"Please don't do this," Serenity asked.

"Do you think you reached any of them?" mocked Charress. "They didn't hear a word you said." Serenity stared, confused. "This computer panel was programmed to synthesize your voice as you spoke and replace your words. They saw your mouth move, heard your voice - - but they heard my scripted words come out of your mouth. I thought you might try something like that, so I had that prepared. You failed, Queen Serenity - - again. All you did was risk the lives of your friends."

"I had to try," Serenity choked out. "It was their lives against billions."

"Well all you succeeded in doing was killing one of them," Charress replied, bringing the remote up.

"No! You said yourself I failed! There's no need to do that!" shrieked Serenity.

"I said I would," the woman said with leering triumph. "Did you want to turn me into a liar?"

To the surprise of both Lester Kelvion and to Madame Charress, Serenity suddenly lunged for the remote control. It was an unexpected act from the person who had become legendary in fifty short years for her philosophy of love and non-violence; legendary except in the European Federation. Charress tried to pull the remote away, but the desperate queen got a grip on the federation ruler's hand and tried to claw the remote from her grasp. The two women locked in a frantic struggle for control of the device. Charress shoved her hand against Serenity's mouth and cheek and pushed with every ounce of strength she could muster. Serenity would not be budged. Kelvion lurched forward, hoping to pull Serenity away.

As he ran forward, the camera light activated. Madame Charress glanced over at a monitor and saw that they were out of commercial break and her struggle with Serenity was being broadcast to an entire continent. That distraction caused her to lose her grip on the remote. It tumbled to the floor and clattered a foot away from them. Kelvion moved to pick it up, but couldn't. Something kept his hands inches away from it. He turned back, staring at them in confusion through his visor.

"PICK IT UP!" Charress shrieked.

"I-I can't!" Kelvion gasped. "Something's around it! It's being protected by some invisible barrier!"

Charress whirled on Serenity.

"You did this!" she snarled.

"I won't let you kill them!" Serenity shook her head, raw emotion twisting her face. "I won't! You've done too much as it is! I won't let you kill anyone else!"

"I'll stop her!" Kelvion declared. "I'll go back to 2018 and kill her! Even if I have to try a thousand times! I won't let her destroy your vision!"

Kelvion faded from view. But Madame Charress wasn't content to wait. She was on Serenity before the woman realized it, her hands closing around the good queen's throat. Forced back by her attacker's weight, Serenity fell against the television control board. Charress pressed her attack, leaning in as she began to choke the life out of Serenity. Of course, Serenity didn't fight back. She'd fight to preserve the lives of others, but her own life wasn't worth violating her principles. And all across the continent, mystified viewers watched the struggle, a struggle in their minds between good and evil.

But moments after Kelvion disappeared, Sailor Pluto appeared. She walked straight up to Madame Charress and, swinging her time staff like a club, knocked the ruler away from her beloved queen. Madame Charress tumbled to the floor and glared up at Pluto with a mixture of venom and fear. Pluto pointed the time staff at her and turned it a quarter turn to the left.

"Pluto!" Serenity gasped, trying to replenish the oxygen in her lungs. "You're here!"

"I had little choice, My Queen," Pluto replied, her eyes never leaving Madame Charress, who sat on the floor frozen in place. "I begged you not to risk your life recklessly. Had I not interceded, this - - woman - - would have choked you to death."

"You're sure?"

"I foresaw it, My Queen," Pluto replied, "in a path now forever closed off."

Serenity picked herself off of the control panel and glided over to Pluto. Peering around the sentinel of time, Serenity saw Charress staring up at them without moving.

"Pluto, what did you do to her?" Serenity asked.

"I have," Pluto began, then grimaced, "frozen time around her."

"But Pluto, isn't that dangerous for you to do?"

"The stress is immaterial, My Queen," Pluto grunted. Serenity could see the strain the Senshi was under. "I am more concerned with violating your command to never do so . . ."

"That's not important!" cried Serenity. "Pluto, let her go! Don't hurt yourself!"

"She will only attack you again," Pluto said through clenched teeth. "I cannot allow that." Her head bowed from the strain momentarily. "Yet there are other concerns. Lester Kelvion has traveled back to 2018 to murder you there. He must be stopped."

"Then go," Serenity offered. "I'll be all right."

"No, My Queen. You will not be all right. If I release Madame Charress, she will finish the attack she started. She must, or lose face before her followers. This must not happen."

"Can't one of your future selves go?"

"Alas, in protecting the pasts of you and your Senshi, and preventing reality from fragmenting, I am spread too thin," Pluto confessed. Serenity could see the strain was worsening. "I can only hope - - the right path - - is . . ."

Then Pluto's eyes rolled up into her head. She slumped to the floor amid Serenity's shriek of alarm, the Garnet Orb Staff clattering to the floor.

* * *

Serenity glanced at her Senshi Communicator. "Oh, I'm going to be late! You keep looking, if you want to. Just remember, don't click on any strange sites without asking your father or Luna first. You remember what happened when I clicked on that one site and infected the entire palace's computer system, don't you?"

"Yeah," Setsuko chuckled. "Luna was SO mad!"

"Well, Luna likes being mad," Serenity grumbled. "Anyway, I have to go. You going to be all right?"

"Yes, Mama," Setsuko said pleasantly.

As Serenity opened the door to exit the Royal Chambers, she was struck in the chest by a beam of pure energy. Flung backwards, she crashed loudly onto a coffee table. The glass top of the table shattered, while the frame bent under her weight. Entering the room, Lester Kelvion walked up to the fallen queen to see if she was dead. Standing over her, he looked down through the replacement visor, the prototype model that didn't have the data capacity as his regular visor. Seeing her chest still rise and fall, he pointed his finger at her to snap off another blast.

"MAMA!" howled Setsuko.

Kelvion turned and glared at the little girl with the black hair and the huge, staring, fearful eyes. His hand went from pointing at Serenity to pointing at her. Setsuko retreated quickly, flying back into her room and under her bed. With the child cowering under her bed, Kelvion returned his attention to Serenity. He pointed his finger once more at the Queen, ready to snuff out her life in the name of his savior, Madame Charress.

Suddenly he snapped his hand back against his chest. It felt as if a spike had pierced the hand, shooting pain up his arm and through his entire body. Looking down at it, the last thing he expected to see was a red rose sticking out.

Kelvion turned just in time to see Endymion's fist before it impacted with the side of his face. The man was knocked off of his feet and flung down against the side of an armchair. Frantically, out of self-preservation, Kelvion pulled up into a protective ball against further attack. But when none came, he peered out from his cringing position.

Endymion was kneeling over his wife with barely controlled anxiety, trying to ascertain her condition.

"Serenity?" he whispered, cradling her as he looked. "How badly are you hurt? Serenity, please tell me!"

His hand shaking from the pain he still felt, Kelvion raised a hand and pointed it at Endymion. There was a momentary blur of motion from Endymion and then another sting of pain, this time in Kelvion's upper biceps. His left hand grabbed for the spot and found another rose sticking out of it.

"That'll be enough out of you," Endymion said while he tenderly stroked his wife's face. "Setsuko-Chan! It's all right to come out!"

Moments later, Setsuko peered around the corner of the doorway to her room. Seeing Endymion with Serenity and seeing Kelvion balled up in a corner, the child emerged and ran over to them.

"Is Mama hurt bad?" Setsuko asked fearfully.

Just then Luna raced into the Royal Chambers. It only took a moment for the black cat to assess the situation.

"Your Majesty, is the Queen . . ."

"Luna, take Setsuko to safety," Endymion demanded. "Then alert palace security and get a medical team down here." He glanced over to Setsuko. "Go with Luna, Honey. I'll take care of your mama."

Setsuko stared at Endymion for a moment, unsure if she could believe him. Then she nodded and scurried out the door after Luna. With Setsuko gone, Endymion began to glow with a golden aura. He began to transfer energy to his wife, to heal her injuries and bring her back from the brink. Over in the corner, Lester Kelvion shifted. His right arm was numb and useless, but he could still fire an energy blast from his left finger.

"Don't make me use another rose on you," Endymion said without looking at him. Kelvion froze. He must have heard Kelvion move.

The advantage gone, Kelvion's hand went down to one of the control circles on his temporal suit. He would time jump again and attack Serenity in another time. But to his growing horror, the suit wouldn't respond. He checked and found there was power to the suit, but something was interfering with the circuitry interface. The rose embedded in his right hand caught his eye. Was it that?

Panic began to set in. Without the suit, he was just a powerless nobody, like he'd been before he'd stumbled onto Yui Bidou's online notes. They would capture him. He'd face prison, torture, maybe even death. There was little hope of him receiving mercy from these people, particularly if he'd succeeded in killing Queen Serenity. Just then the medical team burst into the room. They crowded around the fallen queen, Endymion firing off instructions. Kelvion knew he had to escape and now seemed like the perfect time. Scrambling to his feet, the man bolted for the door to the chamber and out into the hall.

Speeding down the hall, Kelvion shoved palace workers out of the way. He didn't know where he was going. He only knew he had to escape. He had to get away from the vengeance of King Endymion. As he ran, he could hear footfalls behind him, clacking on the marble floors of the palace hallway. As he ran, Kelvion clutched at the rose embedded in his right hand. Once it was gone, his suit would work again. Once it was gone, he could stop hurting.

Spotting a stair case, Kelvion ran for it, descending the stairs as fast as he could. He could hear other shouts now, of alarmed palace workers, and husky voices that had to be palace security. And the persistent click of feet running behind him never ceased. When Kelvion reached the bottom of the stairs, he turned and looked up. Leaping from the top step, King Endymion was sailing through space, spanning the entire staircase in a matter of seconds. His cloak billowed out behind him, but the rest of him was different. His grey tuxedo was now a black suit of armor. He had a sword in his hand and a look that froze Lester Kelvion cold. It was an intense glare, remorseless and aimed squarely at him.

The rose came out of his hand in an explosion of pain. Instantly Kelvion brought his hand up to fire at Endymion. He prayed that the suit would function. It did and the energy shot out from his hand. But the shot went wild, missing Endymion. His leap carried the King to the floor below, inches from Kelvion. As Endymion landed and rose from his crouch, Kelvion turned and ran, screaming in fear.

His flight carried him out into the main lobby of the palace. The visitors waiting at the screening area cried out in alarm. The guards left their stations and began to converge on Kelvion. Flanked on two sides by palace guards and with Endymion quickly closing from behind, Kelvion pressed the time circle on his suit. The temporal function was still blocked. Hearing Endymion come up, Kelvion began firing wildly. One beam glanced off of the staircase banister and into the wall. A second dug a divot in the marble floor of the palace lobby. A third struck a man waiting at the screening station, a tourist from Switzerland visiting the Crystal Palace. He fell dead. This panicked the crowd and they surged for the exits. Another shot struck the fleeing crowd, killing a Japanese woman visiting from Niigata.

Then Endymion felled Kelvion with the hilt of his sword, striking him between the shoulders. Kelvion went down and cringed, looking up at Endymion, all the while frantically tugging at the rose in his biceps.

"DON'T KILL ME!" Kelvion shrieked, seeing Endymion as an avenging angel of death more than a king. "DON'T KILL ME! DON'T! DON'T KILL ME!"

"Surrender yourself," Endymion commanded, pointing the sword at him.

Just then, the rose pulled free from Kelvion's biceps. Emitting a psychotic giggle, Kelvion's hand shot down and engaged the suit's temporal function. As Endymion lunged forward with the sword, Kelvion faded into nothing.

The suit took him back to 2086 in his lab. He'd need to make some minor repairs to the suit before venturing back to 2018. He'd made sure to return a moment after he'd left Madame Charress's chambers, so she wouldn't be in danger from Queen Serenity. Everything would be fine.

Kelvion stopped. He looked at his surroundings more closely. Everything was wrong. Everything was different. He couldn't understand why.

And then Sailor Pluto emerged from the shadows to tell him.

Concluded in Chapter 12


	12. Dust In The Wind

WHAT TIME IS IT  
Chapter 12: "Dust In The Wind"  
A Sailor Moon fanfic

By Bill K.

* * *

Hayami sat next to Sailor Mercury's bed, holding her hand as he slept in his chair. He'd drifted off several hours prior.

But a sound awakened him. It was a shrill, constant beep, a demanding sound in the still of the night. He looked up to the monitor by his wife's bed and tried to focus. There was one gauge showing a flat red line. It took a moment for him to realize what it meant.

By then the emergency cardiac team was in the room. A doctor was preparing to inject a drug into the IV while a nurse was pushing up and down on Mercury's chest. A second nurse came up to him and gently but forcefully brought Hayami to his feet and began herding him out the door.

"No!" Hayami cried, trying to resist her. "I want to stay! Please, I don't want to be separate from her! Not now!"

* * *

"Pluto!" Serenity gasped, falling to her knees beside the fallen Senshi. Motionless and still frozen in time, Madame Charress stared at nothing. "Setsuna!"

Without thinking twice, Serenity jammed her hands down onto Sailor Pluto. They began to glow silver. The silver aura grew until it encompassed both the Queen and the Senshi of time. Pluto's labored breathing began to ease. The strain evident in her face lessened. Eyelids fluttered and finally opened. Pluto looked up at Serenity and smiled, because she really couldn't help herself. Then she sat up. Serenity pulled her hands back and the silver aura faded.

"Are you all right?" Serenity asked tremulously.

"Yes, My Queen," Pluto replied, then flashed a shy smile again at the monarch of Crystal Tokyo. "Under your influence, I had little choice."

"Thank goodness! You really scared me when you fainted!"

"For that, I apologize, My Queen," Pluto said, glancing down. "Castigate me if you will for attempting too much, but given the shambles Lester Kelvion has left the time stream in, I had no alternative."

"I'd never do that!" Serenity gasped. "Even if I knew what castigate meant." Pluto glanced at her curiously and received a mischievous smirk from the Queen. "But what can I do to help you? Maybe you don't have to do this alone. Maybe together we can beat this."

"I appreciate your offer, My Queen," Pluto replied as she took on a far away expression. Serenity got the impression that her attention was divided. "But that will no longer be necessary. I have received help, and from the most unlikely of sources."

Still sitting, Pluto stamped her staff on the floor and turned it a quarter turn to the left. Before Serenity's startled eyes, Pluto faded from view.

Unsure of what to do, Serenity came over to Madame Charress. The woman was still frozen in time. Moving on, Serenity glided over to the three tables where Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Venus lay unconscious and hooked to IV pumps that would kill them at a command. She paused by Mars, fighting back tears. Her hand reached out to touch the sleeping woman, then pulled back in fear.

"Oh," Serenity moaned. "I wish this terrible machine was just gone!"

With that, the machine and the IV connections disappeared like smoke. Mars was the first to wake up. She sat up, confused, and began to look around. It was then that she was seized by a five foot, ninety pound sobbing mass who locked arms around the Senshi and began weeping into her red kerchief. After finally realizing that it was Serenity, Mars curled her arms around the woman.

"I guess I'm home," Mars whispered.

* * *

The suit took him back to 2086 in his lab. He'd need to make some minor repairs to the suit before venturing back to 2018. He'd made sure to return a moment after he'd left Madame Charress's chambers, so she wouldn't be in danger from Queen Serenity. Everything would be fine.

Kelvion stopped. He looked at his surroundings more closely. Everything was wrong. Everything was different. He couldn't understand why.

And then Sailor Pluto emerged from the shadows to tell him. Kelvion raised his hand to fire at her, but Pluto's staff was faster.

"Dead Scream," she said.

The sonic blast struck Kelvion full on and slammed him against a cabinet. It took a moment for Kelvion to collect his senses and in that moment Pluto was upon him. She grasped the power pack disk on his temporal suit and ripped it away. She backed away as Kelvion began pounding on the floor.

"Damn you!" he fumed. "You think you've won? You haven't! Even if you manage to stop me, others will rise up! Inspired by the greatness that is Madame Charress, they will unite and be an army that no one will be able to stop! Madame Charress is eternal!"

"Is she? Look around you," Pluto suggested. "Do you not see the difference?"

Confused, Kelvion looked around. Now he was even more certain that something was different. It was his lab, and yet - - it was different.

"Come to the window," Pluto said. "Gaze down upon the street. Perhaps it will help you see."

Kelvion got up. She made no move to stop him. Casting suspicious glances at her, he walked over to the window and peered out. The skyline was different. The building that had always been across the street from his lab was gone, replaced by a smaller unit. His eyes looked to the street. He saw a man, a familiar man. Kelvion wanted to look away, but he couldn't. The man turned to go into the building and Kelvion got a good look at his face.

"It," he mumbled, "it's me." He turned to Pluto. "How? How am I here and down there? Why isn't he wearing the temporal suit? Why is everything different? WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"Do you recall once saying," Pluto replied stonily, "that the consequences of your actions did not matter? I have done nothing. These are the consequences of your actions."

"Mine?"

"By changing the past, you have stirred the future into a swirl of conflicting events," Pluto explained. "Do you recall in you last trip into the past your attempt to keep King Endymion at bay?"

Kelvion stared at her.

"You fired your energy weapon wildly, blindly, motivated by fear and desperation," Pluto continued. "Your weapon did not strike down the King. But it did strike and kill two people there."

"So what," Kelvion shook his head. "I was acting for the glory of Madame Charress. What are two insignificant lives compared to her?"

"Do you recall the man?" Pluto persisted.

"No."

"He was a tourist in Japan, visiting from Switzerland," Pluto continued. "After his visit, he would return home. There he would marry and sire three children. The middle child, a girl, would herself marry and sire a single child. That child's name would have been Guinevere Charress."

The color drained from the face of Lester Kelvion.

"But that will never happen now," Pluto said, her anger rising ever so slightly, "because YOU changed the past. And with no Guinevere Charress to inspire you, you did not discover the online notes of Yui Bidou. You did not build the temporal suit. You remained in your job as a cybernetic engineer with the firm of Rainier and Kole. And everything else that you did and that she did no longer exists."

"But," Kelvion sputtered, shaking his head, "but I have the suit here! I'm wearing it! I still exist!"

"An a temporal anomaly," Pluto replied. "Already reality is healing itself, returning to the way things had been. The Lester Kelvion you saw on the street, the man you would have been had you not fallen under the sway of Guinevere Charress, is now the real one. Eternity has healed around you and without you. Thus is the folly of mortal minds attempting to reshape the future by pruning the past."

Kelvion turned introspective, struggling to comprehend what had happened. Pluto stood silently, waiting for him to choose a path at this critical juncture in his life.

"This won't stop me," he murmured. Then his voice grew. "This won't stop me! I'll go back! I'll get another power pack, build another one! Then I'll go back and stop myself from killing him! I'll set everything right!" He turned on Pluto angrily. "And you won't stop me! Not you! Not your queen! Nobody! You'll have to kill me!"

"As I foresaw," Pluto replied grimly. She raised the Garnet Orb Staff and pointed it at Lester Kelvion. "Chronos Typhoon."

Garnet energy shot from the staff and struck Kelvion. Instantly he crumpled to the floor. Breath shuddered from his lungs.

"What did you do to me?" he gasped. "I feel so weak."

"I have sped up time around you," Pluto responded. "Enjoy your life in the moments you have remaining."

Looking at his hands, Kelvion saw how baggy the temporal suit was on his body. His hands came up to his face and felt withered, wrinkled skin where before it was smooth. His eyes caught his reflection in the polished surface of a stainless steel trash can. The face looking back at him was ninety years old and aging rapidly. He looked up at Sailor Pluto in horror.

"You are a menace to all who live," Pluto said, "and to all who have lived, and to all who will live. And you are a menace to My Queen. Because of that, I condemn you to oblivion, temporal anomaly."

Lester Kelvion slumped to the floor. He took three ragged breaths and then died. Moments later his corpse had aged to the point where it disintegrated into dust. Pluto turned her staff and shifted in time.

When Pluto returned to the room that had been Madame Charress's bunker, now the bottom floor of an underground parking garage, she found her friends and teammates gathered. Queen Serenity was hugging Sailor Uranus while Sailor Mercury and Sailor Neptune looked on. Mercury seemed amused. Neptune did as well, but Pluto could tell by the narrowing eyes that it was just a polite act. Mars glanced at Pluto.

"Hey, Pluto's back," Mars announced, as much to get Serenity to let Uranus go as to signal her arrival. Instantly the Queen detached herself from Uranus and ran up to Pluto.

"Pluto, are you all right?" Serenity asked anxiously. "When Madame Charress just faded away, I got so worried!"

"All has been set right, My Queen," Pluto assured her.

"Good to hear," Neptune said, walking over with Uranus trailing behind. "And it's good to see you again, Pluto."

"Yes," Pluto smiled, emotion momentarily robbing her of her voice. "It is indeed good to see you both again." Only Serenity seemed to understand why Pluto was suddenly so emotional.

"Well, yay for our side," Venus remarked. "Just wish I could remember why we were here and who we were fighting."

"By your leave, My Queen," Pluto said, "I will return us to 2018."

Serenity nodded. Pluto stamped her staff on the floor and made a quarter turn to the left. The garage faded and was replaced by the eerie mists of the temporal nexus. Everyone turned to leave, but stopped when Serenity lingered by Pluto.

"You're sure you're all right?" Serenity asked.

"I am fatigued, My Queen," Pluto responded. "But I will recover. Being in your presence alone is elixir to me. Knowing that time flows in the correct path once again makes my efforts worthwhile."

"All right," Serenity replied. "Setsuna, what happened to Madame Charress? She just faded away."

"Madame Charress was undone by the seeds of hatred that she sowed," Pluto answered.

"Oh," Serenity squeaked. It was unwelcome news. "And that Kelvion fellow?"

"Lester Kelvion shall not trouble you again," Pluto assured her. "He walks a different path now."

"Good. What he was doing was only going to lead to his destruction," Serenity mused. Then she looked up hopefully at Pluto. "Are you coming to my birthday party? We'd all love to have you."

"I shall," Pluto began, knowing the possible futures for her, "attempt to make an appearance."

"I'll save you some cake," Serenity beamed.

* * *

Once they were back in the palace, at Mercury's insistence, the Senshi and Queen Serenity held a debriefing session. King Endymion was in attendance as well, as were Luna and Artemis. Serenity was the only one who remembered the events that had occurred in the constantly changing time stream and she wanted to keep it that way. But the persistence of everyone else coerced a long, convoluted explanation of what had been for a fleeting time reality.

"Wow," Uranus said softly. "We were both dead?"

"I'm sorry," whimpered Serenity. "We tried to protect you both."

"No, I'm sure you and Pluto had a lot to deal with," Neptune mumbled, equally stunned. "I'm just glad you were able to correct it."

"Yeah. The way you describe how bitter and lonely I was," Uranus said. "I can see that happening. I was that person," and she glanced at Neptune, "before." Neptune reached over and clasped her mate's hand.

"I told you that you all didn't want to know," Serenity pouted.

"Knowledge of such occurrences, even though they've now been wiped from time, are instructional," Mercury maintained. "That knowledge can be used to prevent such things from happening again."

"Yeah, like wearing a bullet-proof vest into combat," Venus remarked, then glanced at Mercury.

"Impractical," Mercury countered, then sobered, "but your point is taken. Perhaps I should do something special for Hayami tonight, even though he has no memory now of my being shot, as I don't either." She frowned. "I wonder what it felt like."

"Are we done yet?" Venus whined. "I've got a honeymoon to get back to."

"You're not getting away that easily!" Serenity exclaimed. "You're going to tell me ALL about him!"

"Gonna have to catch me first," Venus smirked and bolted for the door.

"Mina-Chan!" shrieked Serenity and bounded after her. Artemis and Luna exchanged disgusted looks while the rest emitted sighs of resignation. The meeting quickly broke up.

"Interesting," Ami mumbled, reverting from her Senshi form as she walked down the hall.

"What is?" Makoto asked, walking with her.

"This Lester Kelvion," Ami replied. "From what I gather, he was altering past events to effect his present and future in ways that would bring results favorable to his beliefs."

"Uh, I'll go with that," Makoto gulped.

"Isn't that exactly what Sailor Pluto does? Her often implied goal is to shepherd time to that point in the future we once visited. How is that different than what Lester Kelvion did?"

"She's good and he's evil?"

"Good and evil are concepts based in perception," Ami shook her head. "To Lester Kelvion and those who shared his beliefs, he was doing good."

"You're getting too deep for me, Ames," Makoto smiled. "From what I saw in the thirtieth century, that's a place I'd want to live in. And from what Serenity told me about that other world in that other time, that's not a place I'd want to live in. And that's all the analysis I need."

"Hmm," Ami mused. "Perhaps I am over-thinking things."

"Maybe. Maybe you should concentrate on having a nice evening with Hayami." Makoto glanced over at Ami and smirked. "Maybe we'll finally get you pregnant."

"Makoto," huffed Ami as her cheeks colored.

* * *

"OH MY GOODNESS!" squealed Queen Serenity. "I can't believe I'm actually meeting Tatsuo Hiroyuke!"

The glamorous movie star was about a foot from the diminutive Queen, enduring her excitement and adulation as he had any other squealing fan. Minako hung on his arm, devilishly enjoying his discomfort.

"I know. I said the same thing," Minako chuckled. "Then I got to know him and found out he's really not all that."

"Thanks," Tatsuo replied with sarcastic humor. "I figured you only married me for the boost it would give your career."

"My career!" Minako gasped. "Oh, you are asking for it!"

"Come on," Makoto interceded, herding everyone to a table in one of the palace ballrooms. "We've got a birthday to celebrate."

Serenity sat down at the end of a long table, set to accommodate the guests. On her right was Endymion, while Setsuko sat on her left, in a booster chair. Ami and Hayami were there. Makoto was there, along with Sanjuro, Akiko and Ichiro. Minako and Tatsuo were there. Haruka and Michiru were there. Rei was there, as was Sailor Pluto, true to her word. Shingo was there with his wife and two year old child. And at other tables in the ballroom, members of the palace staff were in attendance. Dinner was waiting to be served, while in the center of the table was a gigantic cake big enough to serve everyone.

"So, Serenity, how does it feel to be . . ." Rei began with feigned innocence.

"Ah ah!" the Queen warned. "My age is a state secret, and if you reveal it I'll have you thrown in prison!"

"You mean I can't tell anyone that you're thirty-eight?" Rei replied innocently.

"Rei Hino, you . . .!" Serenity sputtered. Then she stuck her tongue out at the priest. Several people giggled. Setsuko picked up on the laughter and giggled, too.

"Akiko," Makoto whispered to her daughter as everyone laughed. Akiko was engrossed in her cell phone. "Could you please put the phone away for a half hour?"

"Oh!" huffed Akiko, irritated by yet another impingement upon her freedom.

"Come on, Dumpling," Haruka smiled. "Give us a few words."

"Well," Serenity began haltingly. Then she looked around at everyone at the table and everyone in the room gazing and smiling at her, happy to share this moment in her life. "Well, when I look around the room and I see my wonderful family, and all my wonderful friends, and all the wonderful people who work here and help me day after day . . ."

"And all that wonderful cake and ice cream," Rei added.

"Quiet, Rei," Serenity growled. "When I look at everybody, I realize just how, well, truly lucky I am. Thank you, everyone. Thank you."

The room returned her sentiments with applause.

"Mama, can I have cake now?" Setsuko asked impatiently.

"You are definitely a bad influence on that girl," Rei grinned. The Queen responded with another undignified raspberry.

End


End file.
